Either way, it's now pretty simple to do so from Australia through an online share trading platform.
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The S&P 500 or the Standard & Poor's 500 is an index that measures 500 of the largest corporations by market capitalisation listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Composite.
The idea behind the index is to give investors a quick look at how the overall market is going, although some take it as an indication of the economy at large.
But there are a few criteria you need to tick off to make the list.
To be eligible to enter the S&P 500, a company should be a US company, have a market capitalisation of at least US$22.7 billion (the minimum S&P Dow Jones Indices set from 1 July 2025, which it reviews each quarter), be highly liquid, have a public float of at least 10% of its shares outstanding and its most recent quarter's earnings and the sum of its trailing 4 consecutive quarters' earnings must be positive.
The S&P 500 is a float-adjusted market-cap index and is calculated by the market cap of all S&P 500 stocks divided by an index divisor, which is a proprietary figure that Standard & Poor's owns.
The S&P 500 index edged lower in September and fell 0.59%. Even with that small dip last month the broader trend remained steadily positive. The index gained 3.04% over the past three months and posted a solid 11.99% return for the year so far.
When zooming out to look at the longer term, the exchange-traded fund proxy for the market tracked a 52-week low of $6343.72 and reached a 52-week high of $7798.99.
"The S&P 500 provides exposure to the top companies in the largest and most dynamic economy in the world. Compared to the Australian market, which is top heavy in banks and miners, the S&P 500 also offers diversification for Australian investors by providing relatively higher exposure to the high growth technology sector."
| Response | |
|---|---|
| A little | 51.29% |
| Not at all | 37.85% |
| Yes very concerned | 10.86% |
The S&P 500 index is composed of stocks issued by around 500 different companies, give or take.
But just because there are around 500 options, it doesn't mean you need to buy them all.
Instead, you can purchase individual shares or a group of them that you think will have a stronger return than the S&P 500 will have as an index. When you are working this out you should incorporate dividends as well as share price appreciation.
While doing this is more risky and will take more time in researching compared with buying ETFs, it does have the added advantage of giving you larger returns than ETFs if you can pick the stocks that outperform the market as a whole.
If you're looking to buy individual stocks on the S&P 500 you can do so by following these steps:
We've scored over 30 share trading platforms assessing them for their core features, fees, customer experience and accessibility. Our experts give each platform a score out of 10.
Important: The standard brokerage fee displayed is the trade cost for new customers to purchase $1,000 of either Australian or US shares. Where a platform charges different fees for both US and Australian shares we show the lower of the two. Where both CHESS sponsored and custodian shares are offered, we display the cheapest option.
Trading CFDs and forex on leverage is high-risk and you could lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for every investor. Refer to the provider’s PDS and consider the risks before trading.
The S&P 500 is made up of around 500 listed stocks across 500 of the largest US companies by market capitalisation, which means it contains some of the most recognisable and popular stocks in the world.
It's also weighted by market capitalisation, meaning bigger companies make up a larger part of the index. The S&P 500 is rebalanced each quarter in March, June, September and December.
As of 29 September 2026, the top 10 largest companies in the S&P 500 were as follows:
The S&P 500 has averaged an annual return of 10.68% over the last 30 years1, making it one of the best performing indices in the world.
Accounting for inflation, this means an annual average return of 7.78% (including dividends). In 2024, the S&P 500 returned 23.3%.2
Instead of investing in individual shares of the 500 companies on the S&P 500, you can invest in the entire group of stocks through an index fund.
This is the easiest way to invest in the S&P 500. While you won't "outperform the market" you will get the market average, which is actually a strong return. And you'll achieve this with a lot less effort than researching individual shares.
As an example, say you invested $10,000, some 30 years ago and just left it through the dot-com crash, GFC and Covid downturn, it would be worth over $200,000 in 2025. Not bad for doing very little work.
An ETF is a low-cost investment fund that can be traded on a stock exchange such as the S&P 500. These funds are created by ETF issuers and fund managers and are made up of a basket of securities such as shares, cash and bonds.
Here's a list of some S&P 500 ETFs you can trade in Australia:
To view our best US S&P 500 ETFs click here.
When you hear of someone "trading the S&P 500", they're most likely referring to futures trading - typically executed via Contracts for difference (CFDs) in Australia.
This is a very different approach to "investing" in the S&P 500, which is typically associated with long-term investing into lower risk index funds.
Futures products, such as CFDs, on the other hand, are a derivatives product where you can speculate on index price movements. With CFDs, you never actually own the underlying asset. This is very different to index fund "investing" as it's much riskier and you're typically using leverage to amplify profits and losses.
Important: Futures and CFD trading is much riskier than regular share or index fund investing and should only be attempted by experienced traders.
Unfortunately, there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. Instead, it greatly depends on your goals, risk tolerance, strategy and individual circumstances.
The argument for index investing is the returns are quite strong. If you take the S&P 500's return since it was introduced in 1957, you'd get an annualised return of 10.7%. In other words you'd double your money in less than 7 years. And it takes very little work to do so.
The argument for buying individual stocks is that you can potentially "beat the market" and increase your return. If you can do this over a number of years, you'll obviously beat the average and increase your returns. By that same token, you're also at a greater risk of facing losses if you pick the wrong stocks.
The good news is you don't really need to choose either. A lot of investors simply mix index funds (such as ETFs) and individual shares.
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Totality allows you to trade over 60,000 instruments on 50 global stock exchanges and provides lower commissions for active traders.
If you are looking to transfer your shares into another trading platform, follow these few steps.
$1,000 is a great place to start investing – these are your options.
Hi there, I’m new into the investing market and interested to invest in the SP500. There are so many brokers out there but how do i know which is the best broker option?
Hi Sabby,
It’s great that you’re exploring investment options in the S&P 500. Choosing the right broker is crucial, and there are indeed many options out there. To help you make an informed decision, you can check out Finder’s comprehensive guides on investing in the S&P 500 and the best online share trading platforms.
Hope it helps,
Cheers