Intel Slump Shows How Important ETF Recipes Are to Return

This year’s slump in shares of Intel Corp. and a few other big chipmakers is highlighting how exchange traded funds tracking the same industry can have vastly different returns depending on the formula used to create them.

The iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF is based on the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index that is weighted by companies’ market capitalization, so Intel makes up 8 percent of it. The ETF has risen 2.7 percent since the start of the year, as this chart shows. Intel accounts for less than 2.7 percent of the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF, which tracks an equal-weighted index covering the same industry and has surged 12 percent.