How DAX Index Weights Dey Calculate

DAX index weights dey calculate from free float market capitalisation, with 10 percent ceiling for any single member during rebalance. Each of the 40 companies count according to the value of shares wey people fit genuinely trade, no be the company full market value. One more rule dey catch many readers: headline DAX na performance index wey reinvest dividends, so e no be the same kind series as headline S&P 500 or Nasdaq-100 quote.

If you don already get the list of DAX constituents, this page na the next step: how much each name really count, and wetin dey move the number.

Wetin free float market capitalisation mean

Market capitalisation na share price multiplied by shares outstanding. Free float narrow am down to shares wey ordinary buyer fit buy for open market. Under the published index rules, long-term strategic holdings of 5 percent or more no count as free floating: founding family stakes, government holdings, cross shareholdings between companies, and shares wey company hold for treasury. Deutsche Börse dey publish free float factor for every member and dey revise am as those stakes change.

A member weight na e free float market capitalisation divided by the total free float market capitalisation across all 40 members. If company founders still hold 40 percent of the stock, na only 60 percent of the company size go enter that total. So the company go carry roughly 40 percent less weight than fully floated company with the same headline value.

Two things follow from this. Share price movement dey change weights every second wey market open, and no committee need approve am. Change for float factor, after lock-up expiry or block sale by strategic owner, fit change a weight even when share price no move at all.

The 10 percent cap, and wetin happen when one name pass am

No single DAX member fit carry more than 10 percent of the index on a chaining date. Chaining dates dey fall on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. On each date, any member wey pass the ceiling get capping factor wey pull am back to 10 percent. The weight wey come off am dey spread across the other members according to their own weights.

The calculation dey worth seeing once. The panel below apply exactly that rule to fixed basket of 40 large US listed companies. Every input dey visible, and e show the 12 heaviest names for that basket before and after 10 percent ceiling.

WITH basket AS (
    SELECT
        ticker,
        toFloat64(argMax(market_cap, date)) AS mcap,
        max(date)                           AS asof
    FROM global_markets.stocks_ratios
    WHERE ticker IN ('AAPL','MSFT','NVDA','AMZN','GOOGL','META','AVGO','TSLA','LLY','JPM',
                     'V','MA','XOM','UNH','JNJ','PG','HD','COST','ABBV','WMT',
                     'NFLX','BAC','KO','MRK','PEP','ADBE','CSCO','AMD','TMO','ACN',
                     'MCD','ABT','CRM','LIN','PFE','INTU','TXN','QCOM','AMGN','ORCL')
      AND date >= today() - 60
      AND market_cap > 0
    GROUP BY ticker
),
weights AS (
    SELECT
        ticker,
        asof,
        100 * mcap / sum(mcap) OVER () AS w0
    FROM basket
),
spill AS (
    SELECT
        sum(greatest(w0 - 10, 0))              AS excess,
        sum(if(w0 < 10, w0, 0))                AS room,
        formatDateTime(max(asof), '%b %e, %Y') AS as_of
    FROM weights
)
SELECT
    ticker,
    round(w0, 2)                                                AS uncapped_weight_pct,
    round(if(w0 >= 10, 10.0, w0 * (1 + excess / room)), 2)      AS capped_weight_pct,
    round(if(w0 >= 10, 10.0, w0 * (1 + excess / room)) - w0, 2) AS cap_shift_pp,
    as_of
FROM weights
CROSS JOIN spill
ORDER BY uncapped_weight_pct DESC
LIMIT 12

The heaviest name for the basket, NVDA, get uncapped weight of 14.53 percent. The cap column cut am down to 10 percent, a change of -4.53 percentage points. That weight land on every name wey dey under the ceiling: the smallest name wey dem show move up by 0.32 percentage points. If the spillover push another member pass 10 percent, the calculation repeat until nothing remain above the line. These weights current as of Sep 28, 2026, and prices dey move dem.

Between chaining dates, capping factors stay fixed while prices continue to move. So member wey rise fast fit take more than 10 percent share of the index for some weeks before next quarterly reset bring am back. Rulebook no force correction inside the quarter: ceiling na rebalance rule, no be live limit on index level.

Quarterly review, fast entry and fast exit

Membership and weighting na separate processes. DAX composition get one regular review every year, for September, while index dey chain four times every year. Between annual reviews, two rules fit change membership outside the normal cycle on quarterly review date.

• Fast entry: company wey no dey inside index but don rise well inside DAX size range based on free float market capitalisation go replace the smallest current member.
• Fast exit: member wey don fall well below that range go get replacement from the highest-ranked eligible candidate.

Exact rank thresholds dey inside published rulebook, and dem don revise dem before. So read the source instead of memorising one number. Eligibility gates apply to every candidate: Prime Standard listing, trading on Xetra, minimum liquidity, annual and quarterly financial reports filed on time, plus positive EBITDA for the two most recent annual financial statements. Dem add the profitability and reporting tests for the 2021 rule reform. That same reform increase the index from 30 members to 40 after accounting fraud happen at one member during 2020.

Extraordinary changes dey outside all these rules. Insolvency filing, delisting, or takeover wey remove the free float fit remove a member at any time. Replacement fit get announcement on short notice. The Frankfurt session clock wey control all these dates dey covered for the Xetra trading hours guide.

DAX weighting versus Nasdaq-100 method

Readers wey dey come from how QQQ holdings are weighted go recognise say the methods resemble each other. Four differences matter.

• Float. DAX divide by free float market capitalisation. Nasdaq-100 use shares outstanding without float adjustment, so large insider stake still count fully.
• The cap. DAX ceiling na flat 10 percent for each member. Nasdaq-100 use modified capitalisation scheme: 24 percent ceiling for the largest member, plus group rule wey say members above 4.5 percent no fit add up to more than 48 percent altogether.
• The calendar. Nasdaq-100 reconstitute every year for December and rebalance quarterly. E get special rebalance when weight limits break. DAX review composition every year for September and chain quarterly.
• The return convention. Headline Nasdaq-100 level na price index. Headline DAX level na performance index.

Performance index versus price index

Na this fact most readers dey get wrong. Dem publish two DAX series from the same constituents and same weights. Headline number, the one wey news dey quote and DAX futures and options dey reference, na performance index. Every cash dividend wey member pay dey treated as reinvested into the index on the ex-dividend date. Price index, wey dem publish as DAX Kursindex, remove dividends and track prices alone.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 levels wey most coverage dey quote na price indices. Headline DAX chart beside headline S&P 500 chart no be like-for-like comparison. One get years of reinvested dividends inside am, while the other no get.

The gap no small. The panel below take eight US dividend payers over the five calendar years from January 2021 to December 2025, then separate the result into price movement and cash paid during the same period.

WITH px AS (
    SELECT
        ticker,
        toFloat64(argMin(close, date)) AS start_close,
        toFloat64(argMax(close, date)) AS end_close
    FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
    WHERE ticker IN ('KO','PG','JNJ','PEP','MCD','XOM','CVX','VZ')
      AND date BETWEEN '2021-01-04' AND '2025-12-31'
      AND close > 0
    GROUP BY ticker
),
dv AS (
    SELECT
        ticker,
        sum(amt) AS dividends
    FROM
    (
        SELECT
            ticker,
            id,
            toFloat64(any(cash_amount)) AS amt
        FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
        WHERE ticker IN ('KO','PG','JNJ','PEP','MCD','XOM','CVX','VZ')
          AND currency = 'USD'
          AND ex_dividend_date BETWEEN '2021-01-04' AND '2025-12-31'
        GROUP BY ticker, id
    )
    GROUP BY ticker
)
SELECT
    px.ticker                                                            AS ticker,
    round(100 * (px.end_close / px.start_close - 1), 1)                  AS price_only_pct,
    round(100 * dv.dividends / px.start_close, 1)                        AS dividends_paid_pct,
    round(100 * ((px.end_close + dv.dividends) / px.start_close - 1), 1) AS price_plus_dividends_pct
FROM px
INNER JOIN dv ON dv.ticker = px.ticker
ORDER BY dividends_paid_pct DESC

XOM pay out 44.7 percent of its starting share price as cash dividends across those five years, compared with price movement of 190 percent. Series wey reinvest those payments and series wey ignore dem go separate by roughly that distance, and the calculation compound over longer periods. Over one decade, this account for large part of the headline difference between performance index and price index wey get identical holdings.

FAQ

How dem weight DAX?

By free float market capitalisation. Each member weight na the market value of freely tradable shares divided by the total across all 40 members, with 10 percent ceiling for any single member applied on each quarterly chaining date.

Wetin be the maximum weight of one stock for DAX?

10 percent, set on chaining dates wey fall on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. Between those dates, prices dey move the weights, and member fit occupy more than 10 percent of the index until next reset.

DAX include dividends?

Headline DAX include dem. E na performance index, and dem treat cash dividends as reinvested on the ex-dividend date. Separate price index, DAX Kursindex, dey track prices without dividends.

How often DAX dey change members?

Composition get one regular review every year, for September. Fast entry and fast exit rules fit swap members on quarterly review dates. Extraordinary events like insolvency or takeover fit force change at any time.

Why DAX hold 40 stocks?

E don hold 40 since September 2021, up from 30, after rule reform wey also add profitability and reporting requirements. Methodology fix the number; market size no determine am.

Every panel for this page come with the SQL wey produce am, so you fit open one and check the calculation line by line. If you wan run the same capping maths on basket wey you choose yourself, ask for am in plain English on the Strasmore terminal.