index
MSCI ACWI IMI
Broad global equities including small caps
Index Battle · Evidence-first comparison
MSCI ACWI IMI vs Nasdaq-100: Which Exposure Fits Your Portfolio?
Near-total global coverage against a hundred-stock index defined by listing venue and one sector exclusion.
Last reviewed: 26 August 2026IndependentNo paid placementsInformational only
vs
index
Nasdaq-100
Large non-financial Nasdaq-listed companies
Overall verdict
The Nasdaq-100 selects on where a company is listed, its liquidity and its non-financial classification — not on any attempt to represent a market. MSCI ACWI IMI is built for the opposite purpose. The gap between them in constituent count, country count and size-segment coverage is the largest in this comparison set.
Quick Decision
Choose MSCI ACWI IMI if…
the holding is meant to be the portfolio's core, with country, sector and size exposure all determined by market weight.
Choose Nasdaq-100 if…
you want targeted exposure to that specific Nasdaq-listed cohort and treat its concentration as an intentional, sized position.
Either can make sense if…
the two are used in clearly separate roles — core and satellite — with a rebalancing rule that prevents the satellite drifting into dominance.
At a glance
Entity characteristics—not reference-product fees.
| Characteristic | MSCI ACWI IMI | Nasdaq-100 |
|---|---|---|
| Exposure | Broad global equities including small caps | Large non-financial Nasdaq-listed companies |
| Geography | Global | United States |
| Market coverage | Large, mid and small cap | Large cap |
| Emerging markets | Included | Not included |
| Small caps | Included | Not included |
| Weighting | Market-cap weighted | Modified market-cap weighted |
| Index provider | MSCI | Nasdaq |
Five key differences
- 1.Exposure: Broad global equities including small caps compared with Large non-financial Nasdaq-listed companies.
- 2.Geography: Global compared with United States.
- 3.Market coverage: Large, mid and small cap compared with Large cap.
- 4.Emerging markets: Included compared with Not included.
- 5.Small caps: Included compared with Not included.
Decision scorecard
ExposureDepends
GeographyDepends
Market coverageDepends
Emerging marketsDepends
Small capsDepends
“Depends” means the category reflects an investor objective, not universal superiority.
Coverage, countries and sectors
Verified holdings, concentration, country and sector datasets are not currently connected. When available, each dataset will be labelled as official index data or Reference ETF holdings; listing domicile will not be presented as economic revenue exposure.
What this means in a portfolio
The Nasdaq-100's constituents already sit inside ACWI IMI at market weight. Adding it raises single-stock concentration and reduces effective diversification even though the number of holdings goes up.
Common mistake
Judging the pair on a growth-led period. The Nasdaq-100's financials exclusion and weighting caps mean its relative behaviour changes materially across rate and sector cycles.
Historical comparison basis
Historical performance is represented using Grovcap-selected reference exchange-traded products. It is not the official index or spot return series. Fund or ETP returns can differ because of fees, taxes, tracking, cash positions, product structure and other implementation effects. Differences can reflect TER, tracking difference, withholding taxes, sampling, securities lending, cash drag, operating expenses, currency conversion and inception date.
| Period | MSCI ACWI IMI | Nasdaq-100 | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 24.88% | 33.85% | Cumulative |
| 3 years | 19.35% | 26.30% | Annualised |
| 5 years | 10.75% | 16.19% | Annualised |
| Since inception | 10.19% | 19.36% | Annualised |
Provider-reported net-asset-value total returns for the two reference products, in USD, as of 30 Jun 2026. Figures are taken from provider documents; Grovcap does not convert them into another currency and does not recompute them. Periods where the two products report different currencies, bases or reporting dates are withheld rather than aligned artificially.
Year to date: not shown. Only one reference product currently reports this period.
10 years: not shown. Only one reference product currently reports this period.
Grovcap does not currently hold a daily net-asset-value time series for these products. Indexed performance charts, annualised volatility, maximum drawdown and return-per-risk therefore remain unavailable rather than being estimated from period returns.
Reference instruments used
One canonical European exchange-traded product per exposure, chosen by published rules: exact benchmark family, active and published, plain long-only, then accumulating, unhedged, longest usable history and largest established product.
MSCI ACWI IMI reference product
State Street® SPDR® MSCI All Country World Investable Market UCITS ETF (Acc)
- ISIN
- IE00B3YLTY66
- Product type
- UCITS ETF
- Provider
- Spdr
- Tracked benchmark
- MSCI ACWI IMI (All Country World Investable Market Index) Index
- Distribution
- Accumulating
- Currency hedging
- Unhedged
- Replication
- Physical
- Domicile
- Ireland
- Base currency
- USD
- Ongoing charge (TER)
- 0.17%
- Fund size
- $7.56bn
- Inception
- 13 May 2011
Selected deterministically from 2 eligible products in the Grovcap database — never by commercial arrangement.
Nasdaq-100 reference product
iShares NASDAQ 100 UCITS ETF
- ISIN
- IE00B53SZB19
- Product type
- UCITS ETF
- Provider
- Ishares
- Tracked benchmark
- NASDAQ 100 Index
- Distribution
- Accumulating
- Currency hedging
- Unhedged
- Replication
- Replicated
- Domicile
- Ireland
- Base currency
- USD
- Ongoing charge (TER)
- 0.30%
- Fund size
- $26.89bn
- Inception
- 26 Jan 2010
Selected deterministically from 15 eligible products in the Grovcap database — never by commercial arrangement.
Continue researching
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