QUAL: iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF

What does QUAL hold?#

This fund owns large and medium sized US companies with strong profits, steady earnings and low debt. It keeps its mix of industries close to the overall market. Its value still goes up and down with US stocks.

It tracks the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality Index. It had 118 holdings as of October 15, 2026, according to iShares (BlackRock).

What is the QUAL expense ratio?#

QUAL charges 0.15% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.15% fee comes to about $15 a year.

You never get a bill for it. The fund takes the fee out of its own value a little each day.

How has QUAL done since 2013?#

From July 2013 to October 2026, QUAL returned about 13.6% a year. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $54,193 at the end, with every dividend reinvested.

Prices through October 16, 2026. Figures use daily closing prices adjusted for splits, with dividends reinvested. They do not include taxes or the cost of buying and selling. Past results do not tell you what will happen next.

QUAL returns by year#

What was QUAL’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. QUAL’s worst fall was −34.1%, from February 19, 2020 to March 23, 2020. It got back to that high on August 12, 2020.

The chart shows how far below its last high the fund was on each day. Big drops are normal for some funds. They matter because selling during a drop locks in the loss.

Which Tactfolio strategies hold QUAL?#

No classic strategy holds QUAL yet. You can add it to your own rules in the builder and see how they would have done.

How does QUAL compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for QUAL:

• USMV: iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF, 0.15% a year
• SPYM: State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, 0.02% a year
• IVV: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, 0.03% a year
• VOO: Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, 0.03% a year

See all 8 QUAL alternatives, compared on the same dates as QUAL.

Test QUAL in your own rules#

Tactfolio is a platform where you build rules-based investing strategies, backtest them on decades of real prices, share them, and run them automatically in your own Alpaca account. Open the builder, add QUAL, and see how a rule such as “hold it only above its 200-day average” would have done. Strategies run on daily prices and hold US stocks and ETFs only.

The details#

Prices come from Tactfolio’s stored daily prices for QUAL. Each close is adjusted for splits, and dividends are reinvested on the day the fund pays them out. CAGR is the steady yearly return that turns the starting value into the ending value. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns.

Fund facts come from iShares (BlackRock). We checked them on October 17, 2026. Read what a backtest simulates and how to read drawdown and CAGR for more on these measures.