SMH: VanEck Semiconductor ETF

What does SMH hold?#

This fund owns about 25 of the largest companies that design and make computer chips. Some are based outside the US but trade on US exchanges. With so few stocks in one industry, its price can rise and fall sharply.

It tracks the MVIS US Listed Semiconductor 25 Index. It had 26 holdings as of September 30, 2026, according to VanEck.

What is the SMH expense ratio?#

SMH charges 0.35% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.35% fee comes to about $35 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 SMH done since 2000?#

From June 2000 to October 2026, SMH returned about 10.2% a year. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $128,825 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.

SMH returns by year#

What was SMH’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. SMH’s worst fall was −85.9%, from June 21, 2000 to November 20, 2008. It got back to that high on October 11, 2017.

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 SMH?#

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

How does SMH compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for SMH:

• SOXX: iShares Semiconductor ETF, 0.33% a year
• XLK: State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF, 0.08% a year
• FTEC: Fidelity MSCI Information Technology Index ETF, 0.084% a year
• VGT: Vanguard Information Technology ETF, 0.09% a year

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

Test SMH 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 SMH, 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 SMH. 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 VanEck. We checked them on October 17, 2026. Read what a backtest simulates and how to read drawdown and CAGR for more on these measures.