Subject: Re: Long time reader, infrequent poster
It's the same top 10 holdings. Russell 1000, VONG, S&P500, QQQ ...... all have about the same top 10 stocks.

True 'nuff.
But of course one doesn't have to pick top 10 by market cap, you could pick top 10 by something else. (in fact there is some research that suggests you'd be better off sorting by ANY other datum...)

e.g., top 25 of the Nasdaq 100 by ROE beats the whole set, equally weighted in both cases. Around 3.6%-4.0%/year in the last 20-25 years. Didn't save your bacon in the tech crunch, but left it a tiny bit less cooked.
(I used the "Return on Shareholders Equity" field from Value Line)

Jim