Agreed - if you buy an S&P 500 index, 1/36 of your money is in Apple. (Holdings tab on https://www.spdrs.com/product/fund.seam?ticker=SPY)

Not that big a bet on BH's part.

Not necessarily. The index fund is supposed to track the index. It doesn't need to actually buy the exact stocks as the index, though in the case of the S&P 500, that might be the easiest strategy.

Uh, it's not only the easiest strategy but the only purpose the ETF exists. If people thought SPY had drifted from its benchmark, no one would use it.

ETF still have different replication strategies. To the customer they guarantee to track the index, however they might buy completely unrelated stocks or options to achieve this. The replication strategy should be an important factor when buying an ETF.

Yes, and SPY is the monster ETF that it is because there is no funny business and it tracks the index the old fashioned way by actually holding the securities. Broker dealers can trade in a basket of securities for new shares of SPY and vice versa which keeps it very close to perfectly tracking the index.

I agree with what you're saying but I was talking about the SPY example listed above. The prospectus [0] for SPY says that it's not actively managed and that it rebalances at least monthly.

[0] https://www.spdrs.com/library-content/public/SPDR_500%20TRUS...

SPY isn't the only S&P 500 index fund.

And that it probably wasn't Warren Buffett who bought it (he has 2 portfolio/investment managers who he's gradually handing the reins to).

Then it still seems like a lot, frankly.

1/300 of the most valuable company in the world (or close) is still a hell of a lot.

It still seems like a lot (to me).

"A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you're talking real money." often attributed to Everett Dirksen but he denies saying it.

Seems like real money to me.

Edit: fixed typo