At SG, we’re predominantly focused on trading U.S. indices day-to-day, alongside some bonds & commodities, but equities make up over 50% of our daily trades. Whilst it’s important to understand the index and how it moves, as well as of the key levels, one of the most important areas that’s often overlooked is the underlying assets which make up the index – individual stocks. In many cases, stocks which carry a high weighting in an index, can often move the entire index if they experience any kind of price volatility, driven usually by news releases or earnings reports.
So in order to make your life a little easier, we’ve put together a list of the current top weighted stocks across the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones 30 to help with your trade planning. We’re planning on updating this once a month with updated weightings, as they tend to change from time to time.
| Rank | Company | Symbol | Weight (%) |
| 1 | Microsoft Corporation | MSFT | 5.70 |
| 2 | Apple Inc. | AAPL | 5.42 |
| 3 | Amazon.com Inc. | AMZN | 4.13 |
| 4 | Facebook Inc. | FB | 2.30 |
| 5 | Alphabet Inc. Class A | GOOGL | 1.72 |
| 6 | Alphabet Inc. Class C | GOOG | 1.72 |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 1.55 |
| 8 | Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B | BRK.B | 1.39 |
| 9 | Visa Inc. Class A | V | 1.33 |
| 10 | Procter & Gamble Company | PG | 1.14 |
| 11 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | JPM | 1.14 |
| 12 | United Health Group Incorporated | UNH | 1.12 |
| 13 | Intel Corporation | INTC | 1.10 |
| 14 | Home Depot Inc. | HD | 1.07 |
| 15 | Mastercard Incorporated Class A | MA | 1.07 |
| 16 | Verizon Communications Inc. | VZ | 0.91 |
| 17 | NVIDIA Corporation | NVDA | 0.90 |
| 18 | AT&T Inc. | T | 0.89 |
| 19 | Walt Disney Company | DIS | 0.87 |
| 20 | Pfizer Inc. | PFE | 0.85 |
| Rank | Company | Symbol | Weight (%) |
| 1 | Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 11.47 |
| 2 | Apple Inc | AAPL | 11.46 |
| 3 | Amazon.com Inc | AMZN | 9.97 |
| 4 | Facebook Inc | FB | 4.64 |
| 5 | Alphabet Inc | GOOGL | 3.99 |
| 6 | Alphabet Inc | GOOG | 3.95 |
| 7 | Intel Corp | INTC | 2.80 |
| 8 | NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 2.32 |
| 9 | Cisco Systems Inc | CSCO | 2.00 |
| 10 | Netflix Inc | NFLX | 1.98 |
| 11 | Adobe Inc | ADBE | 1.95 |
| 12 | PepsiCo Inc | PEP | 1.90 |
| 13 | PayPal Holdings Inc | PYPL | 1.86 |
| 14 | Comcast Corp | CMCSA | 1.85 |
| 15 | Tesla Inc | TSLA | 1.58 |
| 16 | Costco Wholesale Corp | COST | 1.40 |
| 17 | Amgen Inc | AMGN | 1.40 |
| 18 | T-Mobile US Inc | TMUS | 1.24 |
| 19 | Broadcom Inc | AVGO | 1.16 |
| 20 | Charter Communications Inc | CHTR | 1.13 |
| Rank | Company | Symbol | Weight (%) |
| 1 | Apple Inc. | AAPL | 8.94 |
| 2 | United Health Group Incorporated | UNH | 8.13 |
| 3 | Home Depot Inc. | HD | 6.78 |
| 4 | Visa Inc. Class A | V | 5.35 |
| 5 | McDonald’s Corporation | MCD | 5.17 |
| 6 | Microsoft Corporation | MSFT | 5.14 |
| 7 | Goldman Sachs Group Inc. | GS | 5.04 |
| 8 | 3M Company | MMM | 4.10 |
| 9 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 4.04 |
| 10 | Boeing Company | BA | 3.85 |
| 11 | Walmart Inc. | WMT | 3.49 |
| 12 | IBM Corporation | IBM | 3.32 |
| 13 | Walt Disney Company | DIS | 3.31 |
| 14 | Procter & Gamble Company | PG | 3.16 |
| 15 | Caterpillar Inc. | CAT | 3.15 |
| 16 | Travelers Companies Inc. | TRV | 2.81 |
| 17 | NIKE Inc. Class B | NKE | 2.63 |
| 18 | Chevron Corporation | CVX | 2.53 |
| 19 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | JPM | 2.51 |
| 20 | American Express Company | AXP | 2.50 |
In SG, we take advantage of after-hours earnings and their impact on the futures markets of the above mentioned equities. Often there’s an opportunity to fade an over-extended move on the back of a particularly bullish/bearish earnings report. We delve into this in more detail in our course material launching soon.
