mo wrote: I don't know why, but I had a hard time finding Nasdaq 100 constituent stocks going back before 2014.

Constructing the historical record of QQQ is quite a bit of work. An alternative is to use a screen like {NasBig100noFin}.

Define {NasBig100noFin}
step0: [Security Type; lag=1 days] == 10,11,12,30,31
step1: [Exchange Code; lag=1 days] == 3
step2: [Fama/French 12 Industry Code; lag=1 days] != 11
step3: [MktCap] Top 100
gtr1.net: GTR1 Backtester - NasBig100noFin

QQQE and {NasBig100noFin} total return for year ending:

year   QQQE   YearEnd     Avg     Min     Max    SD   nSD
2016   7.19   20161230   5.44    3.95    6.50   0.62  2.8
2017  26.54   20171229  26.99   25.43   28.25   0.62  -0.7
2018  -5.40   20181231  -6.00   -6.89   -5.02   0.50  1.2
2019  36.44   20191231  32.04   30.51   34.28   0.82  5.3
2020  37.83   20201231  36.80   35.31   40.04   1.13  0.9
2021  17.98   20211231  19.41   16.82   21.37   1.00  -1.4
2022  -24.47  20221230  -24.52  -25.59  -23.31  0.53  0.1
2023  33.75   20231229  31.96   30.31   34.43   0.99  1.8
2024   6.98   20241231  12.72   10.13   14.85   1.01  -5.7
2025  14.58   20251128  18.49   15.56   20.77   1.23  -3.2

Correlation of TR for QQQE and {NasBig100noFin} is 0.99, with QQQE underperforming in 2024 and 2025. (QQQE total return in Dec 2025 was 0.33%. {NasBig100noFin} returns are to 20251128.)

This archived website lists Nas100 changes.
Saved 195 times between November 13, 2001 and January 14, 2026.
The Internet Archive: Wayback Machine*/nasdaq.com - Historical data

Author: rgearyiii
Subject: GTR1 Database Update 1/12/14
Date: 1/12/2014
"... The new (or rather, previously unannounced) field file nas100.a provides daily Nasdaq 100 membership from January 1, 1995 according to historical changes indicated at nasdaq.com - Historical data and Wikipedia: Nasdaq-100 - Wikipedia . The current list is obtained directly from nasdaq.com. The single day`s worth of work involved in building the historical membership lists was inspired by comments by Zeelotes suggesting that Nasdaq 100 membership is extremely important in his own successful trading. I have not had much time to explore this data myself due to a long to-do list for the backtester, so I am hoping others will start the research and share results. If anyone can demonstrate the value of this data, I`ll consider looking into what it takes (a lot more than a single day!) to obtain Nasdaq 100 constituent lists back to the index`s inception in 1984.The new (or rather, previously unannounced) field file nas100.a provides daily Nasdaq 100 membership from January 1, 1995 according to historical changes indicated at nasdaq.com - Historical data and Wikipedia: Nasdaq-100 - Wikipedia . The current list is obtained directly from nasdaq.com. The single day`s worth of work involved in building the historical membership lists was inspired by comments by Zeelotes suggesting that Nasdaq 100 membership is extremely important in his own successful trading. I have not had much time to explore this data myself due to a long to-do list for the backtester, so I am hoping others will start the research and share results. If anyone can demonstrate the value of this data, I`ll consider looking into what it takes (a lot more than a single day!) to obtain Nasdaq 100 constituent lists back to the index`s inception in 1984. ..."
https://yorickm.com/Message.php?pid=31063732