The shape of the universe
As of 30 October 2026, the tracked universe spans eight sectors and 2,455 companies. Technology is the clear leader by headcount, with 654 names — roughly 27% of everything we follow. Industrials (471) and Healthcare (407) round out the top three, together with Technology accounting for more than six in ten tickers. Basic Materials is deeper than most would guess at 352 names, while Consumer Cyclical (182), Energy (147), Financials (146), and Communication Services (96) make up the slimmer tail.
The marquee names are where you'd expect them. Technology carries AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, AMD, CRM, and INTC. Financials is anchored by BRK.B, JPM, V, MA, and BAC; Communication Services by GOOGL, META, NFLX, DIS, and Tencent (0700.HK); Consumer Cyclical by AMZN, TSLA, HD, and Alibaba (9988.HK). Energy leans on XOM, Shell (SHEL.L), and Reliance (RELIANCE.NS).
Breadth hides in the long tail
Headcount is not just a few giants. Industrials mixes Honeywell (HON) and nVent (NVT) with newer-economy bets like Archer Aviation (ACHR) and names from Shanghai (603992.SS) and Taipei (4588.TW). Basic Materials skews toward smaller, global resource plays — China XLX Fert (1866.HK), Argentina Lithium (LILIF), Galantas Gold, and Novo Resources — rather than household names. Healthcare pairs defensive blue chips (JNJ, UNH, ABBV) with speculative tickers like GoodRx (GDRX) and PenetriumBio. The universe is genuinely global and genuinely multi-cap.
A data caveat worth flagging
Here's where I'll be opinionated: the market-cap totals don't track the company counts, and the mismatch is too large to wave away. Technology, with the most names and the largest real-world caps, reports roughly $23.1T in aggregate — yet Financials shows ~$159.5T, Energy ~$106.6T, and Basic Materials ~$47.2T, all on far fewer companies. Those figures invert what the holdings themselves imply. Treat the sector cap column as noisy until it's reconciled; lean on company counts and constituents for now.
The counts carry their own wrinkle too: cross-listings inflate them. Tesla appears as TSLA, TL0.F, and TL0.DE; Alphabet as GOOGL and GOOG; Novo Resources, Galantas Gold, and Obsidian Energy each show up under two exchange tickers. The true number of distinct businesses is somewhat below 2,455.
What to watch
- Technology concentration. With a quarter of the universe in one sector, breadth there — not just the AAPL/MSFT/NVDA trio — is the signal to monitor.
- The Industrials pivot. Legacy names sitting beside Archer Aviation hint at a sector redefining itself around electrification and new mobility.
- Materials as a macro tell. A deep bench of lithium, gold, and fertiliser plays makes this sector a useful read on commodity sentiment.
- Data hygiene. Until the cap figures reconcile and cross-listings are de-duplicated, weight your conclusions toward constituents, not the headline totals.