Nasdaq 100: How the Index Works and Who Gets In

The Nasdaq-100 (ticker NDX) tracks about 100 of the largest non-financial companies with a primary listing on Nasdaq.
Members must pass liquidity and seasoning rules, then are ranked by full market cap each December, with quarterly checks and a Fast Entry rule for very large newcomers.
Weights follow modified market cap: no company may exceed 24%, and companies above 4.5% may not total more than 48%; a breach trims them to 20% and 40%.
It differs from the Nasdaq Composite (2,500+ Nasdaq listings, financials included) and the S&P 500 (about 500 companies across US exchanges, chosen by a committee).
You can't buy the index itself; investors get exposure through funds that track it, such as ETFs, which differ on fees and weighting method.
Main risks: concentration in a few large technology companies, bigger swings than broader indexes, overlap with S&P 500 funds, and currency risk for non-USD investors.

The Nasdaq 100 is an index, containing around 100 of the largest non-financial companies primarily listed on Nasdaq. The composition of these companies is weighted using (a modified) market capitalization. Nasdaq launched the Nasdaq 100 index in 1985, alongside a separate Nasdaq Financial-100.

In this article, we will discuss what Nasdaq 100 is, how it works, which companies are in it, and assets related to the index.

What is the Nasdaq 100?

The Nasdaq 100 is a list of the 100 biggest non-financial companies traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The index itself is only a list, and you can't buy an index. What an investor can do is buying the ETFs provided by various funds which track the Nasdaq 100 index.

So, when people say “the Nasdaq 100 is up 1%,” what they mean is that those 100 companies altogether rose about 1% in value. One thing to note is that the composition of this index is not uniform across the 100 names. Bigger companies count for more in the total, so a move in Apple or Nvidia, for example, affects it far more than a move in a company with smaller "weight".

There are different terms related to this index that you may want to remember:

Nasdaq-100 is the official name of the index itself. Nasdaq styles it with a hyphen, but people write it with or without the hyphen, so don't worry about it.
NDX is the ticker symbol for that index, the way a stock has a ticker. It’s what you’d type into a data terminal or charting site to pull up the index’s value.
There’s also another ticker XNDX, and this version counts reinvested dividends.
NAS100 / US100, etc., are labels made by brokers for various contracts. They’re not official Nasdaq names, so check with your broker to know what they are.

Meanwhile, there are derivatives such as futures related to Nasdaq 100, and this is a completely different topic. The standard futures contracts are NQ (the E-mini) and MNQ (the micro).

Nasdaq 100 vs Nasdaq Composite vs S&P 500

Besides Nasdaq 100, there are other indexes such as the composite, and S&P 500. Let's see the main differences between them:

How a company gets into the Nasdaq 100

There are several requirements a company must fulfill to be listed in the Nasdaq 100. Note: the rules mentioned below follow Nasdaq’s own Nasdaq-100 methodology effective May 1, 2026. Changes might happen after the publishing of this article.

The eligibility checklist

To be eligible, a security must meet all of these:

Listing: Primary listing on a US Nasdaq exchange. The Nasdaq Capital Market is excluded.
Sector: Not classified as Financials under the Industry Classification Benchmark. Non-REIT real estate companies are allowed.
Security type: Common stock, tracking stock or ADR.
Liquidity: A three-month average daily value traded of at least $5 million.
Seasoning: Generally at least three full calendar months of trading, not counting the month of listing. Existing members are exempt.
Corporate status: Not in bankruptcy, and not party to a deal that would make it ineligible, such as an agreed acquisition, a plan to delist, or a decision to liquidate.

There is no minimum market cap and, since May 2026, no minimum free float.

The December reconstitution

Once a year, Nasdaq re-picks the 100 companies in these steps:

On the last trading day of November, Nasdaq ranks every eligible company by full market cap
Select the top 75
Keep any current member ranked in the top 100
Keep current members ranked 101st to 125th, only if they were in the top 100 at the previous December review (or joined since).
Fill any remaining spots with the highest-ranked newcomers from the top 100.

The selection stops when the index reaches 100 companies, and changes will then take effect after the close on the third Friday in December.

The quarterly rebalances

In March, June and September, Nasdaq re-ranks companies again. Any member ranked outside the top 125 is removed, starting from the lowest-ranked first. The removed member gets replaced by the largest eligible non-member. Members ranked 101-125 stay.

Fast Entry

A company outside the index can be added early, if its full market cap is big enough to rank in the top 40 of current members. Since nobody is removed to make room, the count can temporarily exceed 100.

For an IPO, the timeline in trading days is:

Day 1: First day of trading on an eligible exchange.
Day 7 (close): The company is ranked and checked. The seasoning requirement is waived, and the $5 million volume test is measured from the first trading day instead of over three months.
Day 10 (after close): Nasdaq announces the addition.
Day 15: The company is typically added, which is about three calendar weeks after listing.

Rebalance timing: If day 15 lands in the same month as a scheduled reconstitution or rebalance, there’s an adjustment. If day 7 falls on or before that event’s reference date, the company joins as part of the event. Otherwise it joins no sooner than five trading days after the event.

Newly added weights: A Fast Entry company’s weight is set by interpolating between its neighbors in the size ranking, then applying the standard weight caps.

How the Nasdaq 100 is weighted

Nasdaq weighs the companies proportion a little differently. In a pure market-cap index, each company’s slice simply matches its size. Nasdaq adds two adjustments:

1. It counts only the shares that are actually available to trade.
This rule prevents the index from weighting unavailable shares. Only listed share classes count, while foreign-listed and unlisted shares are ignored.

Weights are then based on a “modified” market cap: share price times the company’s total shares outstanding, or three times its free-floating shares (whichever is the smallest).

2. Multiple share classes are added together.
A company with two share classes is treated as one company. For example, Alphabet’s two classes are combined.

The guardrails

Besides those weighting methods, Nasdaq also applies limits to prevent a few huge companies from dominating the index. There are two layers here:

Company-level limits (applied at every rebalance):

The 20% rule: If any company’s weight would exceed 24%, the weights are adjusted so no company is above 20%.
The 4.5% / 48% rule: Add up the weights of all companies above 4.5%, and if that total is 48% or more, the group’s combined weight is cut to 40%. To keep the ranking in order, smaller companies’ weights can be lowered also.
The adjustment repeats until both limits are met.

Security-level limits (applied at the annual December reconstitution):

The 14% rule: If any single security exceeds 15%, the weights are adjusted so none is above 14%.
The top-five rule: If the five largest securities total 40% or more, their combined weight is cut to 38.5%. Any other security is then capped at the lesser of 4.4% or the weight of the fifth-largest.
Repeats until both limits are met.

Special rebalances: The company-level limits are checked daily. If any company’s weight exceeds 24%, or the group above 4.5% exceeds 48%, Nasdaq can trigger a special rebalance between the regular dates.

Current condition

In a late-October 2026 third-party snapshot, the largest holding was about 8.3% of the index. The companies above 4.5% totaled roughly 32%, well short of the 48% trigger. The top five securities came to about 30.6% against a 40% limit.

What is inside Nasdaq 100 today

This is the full list of Nasdaq 100, as of October 27, 2026 (there are 101 rows because Alphabet has two share classes):

#	Ticker	Company	Weight
1	NVDA	NVIDIA	8.33%
2	AAPL	Apple	7.35%
3	MSFT	Microsoft	5.76%
4	MU	Micron Technology	5.02%
5	AMD	Advanced Micro Devices	4.17%
6	AMZN	Amazon	4.07%
7	META	Meta Platforms	3.26%
8	GOOGL	Alphabet (Class A)	3.05%
9	GOOG	Alphabet (Class C)	2.85%
10	WMT	Walmart	≈2.82%
11	AVGO	Broadcom	≈2.82%
12	TSLA	Tesla	2.82%
13	SPCX	Space Exploration Technologies	≈2.82%
14	ASML	ASML Holding (NY shares)	≈2.44%
15	INTC	Intel	≈1.90%
16	PLTR	Palantir Technologies	≈1.90%
17	COST	Costco	≈1.77%
18	CSCO	Cisco Systems	≈1.73%
19	PANW	Palo Alto Networks	≈1.27%
20	AMAT	Applied Materials	≈1.22%
21	LRCX	Lam Research	≈1.18%
22	TXN	Texas Instruments	≈1.08%
23	CRWD	CrowdStrike	≈1.07%
24	NFLX	Netflix	≈1.04%
25	AMGN	Amgen	≈0.96%
26	ARM	Arm Holdings	≈0.94%
27	LIN	Linde	≈0.93%
28	SHOP	Shopify	≈0.87%
29	MRVL	Marvell Technology	≈0.82%
30	ADI	Analog Devices	≈0.79%
31	GILD	Gilead Sciences	≈0.78%
32	KLAC	KLA Corporation	≈0.77%
33	QCOM	Qualcomm	≈0.75%
34	PEP	PepsiCo	≈0.73%
35	SNDK	Sandisk	≈0.73%
36	TMUS	T-Mobile US	≈0.63%
37	ISRG	Intuitive Surgical	≈0.62%
38	STX	Seagate Technology	≈0.59%
39	MNST	Monster Beverage	≈0.54%
40	FTNT	Fortinet	≈0.53%
41	WDC	Western Digital	≈0.53%
42	VRTX	Vertex Pharmaceuticals	≈0.52%
43	ADP	Automatic Data Processing	≈0.47%
44	SBUX	Starbucks	≈0.47%
45	BKNG	Booking Holdings	≈0.46%
46	PDD	PDD Holdings	≈0.44%
47	MAR	Marriott International	≈0.41%
48	ABNB	Airbnb	≈0.41%
49	ADBE	Adobe	≈0.40%
50	DDOG	Datadog	≈0.40%
51	CSX	CSX Corporation	≈0.38%
52	INTU	Intuit	≈0.36%
53	CTAS	Cintas	≈0.36%
54	CEG	Constellation Energy	≈0.36%
55	CDNS	Cadence Design Systems	≈0.35%
56	APP	AppLovin	≈0.35%
57	SNPS	Synopsys	≈0.35%
58	MELI	MercadoLibre	≈0.34%
59	REGN	Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	≈0.33%
60	MDLZ	Mondelez International	≈0.32%
61	MRNA	Moderna	≈0.32%
62	CMCSA	Comcast	≈0.31%
63	ROST	Ross Stores	≈0.30%
64	LITE	Lumentum Holdings	≈0.29%
65	ORLY	O’Reilly Automotive	≈0.29%
66	DASH	DoorDash	≈0.29%
67	AEP	American Electric Power	≈0.28%
68	HON	Honeywell International	≈0.28%
69	NXPI	NXP Semiconductors	≈0.25%
70	FAST	Fastenal	≈0.24%
71	MSTR	Strategy	≈0.23%
72	FANG	Diamondback Energy	≈0.23%
73	MPWR	Monolithic Power Systems	≈0.23%
74	BKR	Baker Hughes	≈0.22%
75	PCAR	PACCAR	≈0.22%
76	HONA	Honeywell Aerospace	≈0.21%
77	TRI	Thomson Reuters	≈0.21%
78	ADSK	Autodesk	≈0.21%
79	CCEP	Coca-Cola Europacific Partners	≈0.20%
80	WDAY	Workday	≈0.20%
81	XEL	Xcel Energy	≈0.19%
82	TER	Teradyne	≈0.19%
83	KDP	Keurig Dr Pepper	≈0.19%
84	PYPL	PayPal	≈0.19%
85	EXC	Exelon	≈0.18%
86	ALAB	Astera Labs	≈0.18%
87	IDXX	IDEXX Laboratories	≈0.18%
88	ROP	Roper Technologies	≈0.17%
89	NBIS	Nebius Group	≈0.17%
90	MCHP	Microchip Technology	≈0.16%
91	PAYX	Paychex	≈0.16%
92	TTWO	Take-Two Interactive	≈0.15%
93	ODFL	Old Dominion Freight Line	≈0.15%
94	FER	Ferrovial	≈0.14%
95	AXON	Axon Enterprise	≈0.14%
96	RKLB	Rocket Lab	≈0.13%
97	GEHC	GE HealthCare Technologies	≈0.13%
98	ALNY	Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	≈0.12%
99	CRWV	CoreWeave	≈0.12%
100	DXCM	DexCom	≈0.12%
101	CPRT	Copart	≈0.11%

Popular Nasdaq 100 ETFs

An investor can get an exposure to Nasdaq 100 via ETFs that track the list. These below are few examples, and not a recommendation. Notice how each one has different expense ratios. An expense ratio is a yearly fee that an investor pays, directly reduced from the returns.

Ticker	Fund	Expense ratio	Approx. size	Notes
QQQ	Invesco QQQ Trust	~0.18-0.20%	~$485B	The first that tracks Nasdaq 100
QQQM	Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF	0.15%	~$100B
QQEW	First Trust Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted	~0.55%	Much smaller	Same 100 companies, but each gets roughly equal weight.

Risks to understand

The Nasdaq 100 is still concentrated in a few very large companies and in technology, which may result in higher volatility than broader indexes. The index can also overlap with S&P 500 funds and single stocks the investor may already own. Every investment carries its risks, and there is no guarantee on returns or profits.

FAQ

What is the Nasdaq-100, and what does NDX mean?
An index of 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq. NDX is the ticker symbol.

How many companies are in it, and why do funds hold more than 100 stocks?
It holds 100 companies, but it can hold more than 100 securities. A company like Alphabet takes up two lines with GOOGL and GOOG.

Is it the same as “the Nasdaq” or the Nasdaq Composite?
No. The Composite covers 2,500+ stocks including financials.

How is it different from the S&P 500, and do they overlap?
The S&P 500 holds about 500 US companies from every sector, including financials, and isn’t strictly the 500 largest. The Nasdaq-100 is narrower.

Why are banks and other financial companies excluded?
The index launched in 1985 alongside a separate Nasdaq Financial-100, covering financial companies.

How does a company get added or removed?
To qualify, it needs a primary Nasdaq listing (not the Capital Market), a non-financial classification, an eligible security type (not a REIT or SPAC), at least $5 million in average daily trading value, and generally three months of trading history. A company gets removed if it gets disqualified on any of those points.

When is it reconstituted and rebalanced?
The annual reconstitution happens in December. Quarterly rebalances happen in March, June and September.

What is the Fast Entry rule, and how quickly can a large IPO join?
A large IPO whose market cap would rank in the top 40 of current members can join early.

How is it weighted, and what stops one company from dominating?
It uses modified market-cap weighting: bigger companies get bigger weights, with limits. If any company’s weight exceeds 24%, it’s cut back so none exceeds 20%. If all companies above 4.5% together reach 48% or more, their combined weight is reduced to 40%. Low-float companies are also weighted as if they had at most three times their free-floating shares.

Is it only technology stocks?
No, but tech dominates roughly 60-70% of the index depending on the source classification.

Can you invest directly in it? How do funds track it?
You can’t buy the index itself. You can buy an ETF or index fund that holds the index’s stocks in roughly the index’s proportions.

What should you compare between two funds that track it?
Compare these:

Index tracked: Make sure it’s really the Nasdaq-100 and not the Composite or an equal-weight version.
Expense ratio: The yearly fee.
Size and liquidity: Assets under management and trading volume.
Tracking: How closely the fund’s returns match the index.
Extras: Whether options exist on the fund, and its dividend and tax treatment.

What is the Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted Index?
It holds the same securities as the Nasdaq-100, but each starts at about a 1% weight and is reset to equal weights every quarter.

What are the main risks, and is it diversified on its own?
The top 10 holdings were about 47% of the index in one recent snapshot, it's tech-dominated, and there’s no exposure to financial companies.