Performance charts


What are we comparing?

iShares Core MSCI World tracks the developed-world economy as a whole: roughly 1,400 large- and mid-cap stocks across North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

iShares Nasdaq 100 tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. These are the companies most directly exposed to, and priced for, the current AI hype cycle.

iShares Edge MSCI World Value Factor selects stocks based on the value factor.

Value Factor

A measure of how cheap a stock is relative to its fundamentals. Typically scored on price-to-book, price-to-earnings, and price-to-cash-flow. Stocks ranking high on value are priced low relative to what the business actually earns or owns. Fama & French (1992) showed these stocks have historically outperformed over long horizons, likely because the market systematically undervalues boring, profitable companies in favour of exciting growth stories. — Claude

The 15 largest current holdings in the Value Factor ETF give a feel for what it actually owns:

#CompanySector
1Micron TechnologySemiconductors
2Cisco SystemsNetworking / Enterprise tech
3QualcommSemiconductors
4VerizonTelecoms
5Toyota MotorAutomotive
6AT&TTelecoms
7ComcastMedia / Cable
8HPHardware
9British American TobaccoConsumer staples
10General MotorsAutomotive
11PfizerPharma
12NXP SemiconductorsSemiconductors
13ShellEnergy
14NokiaTelecoms / Infrastructure
15HSBCBanking

Telecoms, legacy hardware, autos, tobacco, oil, banks. These are almost the exact opposite of the Nasdaq 100 holdings. The Value Factor ETF is structurally a counter-position to AI hype.

And yet: over 1, 2, 3, and 5 years, the Value Factor ETF has kept pace with or outright beaten the Nasdaq 100. The anti-hype basket beat the hype basket.

If the Nasdaq 100 is the pure AI-hype play and the Value ETF is its structural opposite, and Value is winning: does that mean fear of being in a bubble is driving more capital allocation than the hype itself?

FYI

Also, the dotcom bubble popped right around the time people started to ask “Is it even a bubble?”

Unqualified Comment by Hank Green

Tickers: IWDA.AS (iShares Core MSCI World, Amsterdam), CNDX.L (iShares Nasdaq 100, London), IWVL.L (iShares Edge MSCI World Value Factor, London). Returns are price returns in local currency; no FX hedging. Data fetched 2026-06-09.