Is Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF (SPMO) Halal?
Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF (SPMO) · SPMO
SPMO is not Shariah-compliant. It holds the ~100 S&P 500 stocks with the highest momentum scores, with no Shariah screening — the current basket includes conventional financials like Goldman Sachs alongside names that fail the AAOIFI debt and interest-income ratios, and the fund earns interest on cash. There is a second, subtler problem: the portfolio is rebuilt every six months purely on price momentum, so even if today's basket happened to look clean, the strategy guarantees nothing about the next one — an unscreened momentum fund can rotate into banks and casinos at any reconstitution. For screened exposure to strong large-cap performers, use SPUS or HLAL, whose screened universes already concentrate in the same leading tech names.
Screening basis: AAOIFI Shariah standards · Last reviewed 2026-07-20
HalalWallet is not a Shariah authority and does not issue religious rulings. We compile the most complete public record of what Shariah scholars, screening authorities, and mainstream standards say — reproduced from primary sources with dates and citations — and let you decide.
Do the halal screening authorities agree?
- HalalWallet (AAOIFI)· Not halal
HalalWallet (AAOIFI) rates Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF (SPMO) not halal; no other recognized authority has a published position.
Stances are normalized from each authority's own dated public position. Disagreement usually reflects a methodology or standard difference (ratio timing, market-cap vs total-assets denominator), not an error. For the fund screens (Wahed/HLAL, SP Funds/SPUS), only a confirmed holding that passed the fund's screen counts as a pass — a non-holding is left blank because absence can reflect index scope.
Is Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF (SPMO) Halal?
SPMO is not Shariah-compliant. It holds the ~100 S&P 500 stocks with the highest momentum scores, with no Shariah screening — the current basket includes conventional financials like Goldman Sachs alongside names that fail the AAOIFI debt and interest-income ratios, and the fund earns interest on cash. There is a second, subtler problem: the portfolio is rebuilt every six months purely on price momentum, so even if today's basket happened to look clean, the strategy guarantees nothing about the next one — an unscreened momentum fund can rotate into banks and casinos at any reconstitution. For screened exposure to strong large-cap performers, use SPUS or HLAL, whose screened universes already concentrate in the same leading tech names.
How we read the evidence
HalalWallet's editorial synthesis of the screens, scholar positions, and sources documented on this page — not a religious ruling.
SPMO has been one of the hottest tickets in factor investing — the Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF returned 45.8% in 2024, beat the index again in 2025, and crossed $21 billion in assets as performance-chasing flows arrived. It takes the S&P 500, scores every stock on risk-adjusted price momentum, keeps the top ~100, and reweights by size times momentum, rebuilding the whole basket every March and September. Muslim investors seeing it atop performance leaderboards are asking whether this one passes.
The snapshot answer is straightforward. SPMO applies no Shariah screen, and its current holdings include Goldman Sachs — a conventional investment bank — along with insurers and ratio-failing names that ride whatever momentum wave is running. The fund also earns interest on its cash. Under the same AAOIFI-based analysis as our VOO, SPY, QQQ, VTI, and VGT verdicts, an unscreened wrapper holding impermissible businesses is not halal, and there is nothing about a momentum weighting that changes it.
But SPMO adds a structural lesson the market-cap funds don't teach as clearly. A total-market fund's non-compliance is at least stable — you know it holds banks, permanently. A momentum fund's holdings are deliberately unstable: the methodology re-selects the portfolio twice a year on price behavior alone, with sector membership and compliance simply not inputs. In one cycle the fund is 60% technology (as now, with Micron, Nvidia, and Broadcom on top); in another it has been energy- and financials-heavy. Even if a reconstitution someday produced an accidentally clean basket, the investor would hold a fund guaranteed to drift back into prohibited sectors whenever they start outperforming — which, for banks in a rising-rate cycle or casinos in a consumer boom, is exactly when a momentum index buys them. An unscreened momentum fund is thus unscreenable in principle, not just unscreened in fact.
Worth separating: the momentum *idea* is not the problem. Buying strength — favoring stocks in established uptrends — is a selection heuristic, and applied to screened stocks it violates nothing; scholars' cautions about it are behavioral (high turnover invites gambling-adjacent habits) rather than contractual. A Muslim investor who wants the flavor of SPMO has two compliant routes. The passive one: SPUS or HLAL, whose screened universes already concentrate in the mega-cap tech names that dominate momentum rankings — much of SPMO's recent portfolio overlaps with theirs. The active one: run the tilt yourself inside the screened universe, verifying each position with a current screener check. Either captures the strategy's engine without owning Goldman Sachs to get it.
Business Activity Screen
A passive factor ETF tracking the S&P 500 Momentum Index — roughly 100 S&P 500 stocks with the highest risk-adjusted price momentum, reconstituted twice a year (March/September), weighted by market cap × momentum score. ~$21B AUM, 0.13% expense ratio.
No Shariah screening at any layer: the current holdings include conventional financials (e.g., Goldman Sachs) and ratio-failing names, the fund earns interest on cash, and the momentum methodology re-selects holdings on price behavior alone — sector and compliance are not inputs.
Scholars' & Screeners' Positions
Published positions, cited as stated. Screeners can reach different conclusions on the same company because of ratio timing and methodology differences — we report the disagreement rather than flatten it.
Mainstream AAOIFI-aligned view
An unscreened index fund is not permissible to hold regardless of its factor tilt: compliance is determined by every holding passing the business-activity and financial-ratio screens, which a momentum selection cannot guarantee at any reconstitution. The presence of conventional financials in the current basket settles the current period; the methodology settles every future one.
On momentum as a strategy
Buying strength in screened stocks is permissible — momentum as a signal is not itself a fiqh problem the way interest or short selling are. The issue is executing the strategy through an unscreened wrapper. An investor who wants momentum exposure can apply the tilt within a screened universe or via individually screened holdings.
What to do instead
You don't have to choose between investing and your values — screened alternatives exist for nearly every position.
Browse all etf & fund verdicts →
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The Final Step: Your Scholar Conversation
Major whether Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF (SPMO) is halal decisions involve nuances that vary by scholarly opinion and personal circumstance — which is why HalalWallet is built as the research step, not the ruling. We do the homework on comparisons, structures, and oversight; a qualified Islamic scholar, your local imam, or a Shariah-certified financial advisor covers what no comparison site can — guidance specific to your situation. Bring your shortlist to that conversation so it starts at the decision, not the basics.
How to use this comparison: HalalWallet is an independent educational comparison platform — by design, we do not provide financial, legal, or religious advice. We do the research homework so your final checks are quick and personal.
Product structures and Shariah oversight vary by provider, so finish with three built-in steps:
- Confirm current terms and halal compliance directly with the provider — their quote is final.
- Review the contract structure (Murabaha, Ijara, Musharakah, etc.) and any disclosed Shariah board opinions.
- Bring your shortlist to a qualified Islamic finance advisor or scholar, so the conversation is about your situation, not the basics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources and review process
This page is reviewed against HalalWallet editorial standards and source documentation.
Reviewed by: HalalWallet Editorial Team
Last reviewed: 2026-07-01
- Invesco — SPMO fact sheet (S&P 500 Momentum ETF)
- Wahed — what makes an ETF halal (standard index ETFs are not)
- AAOIFI Shariah Standard No. 21 (investment in shares)
- HalalWallet Methodology
- Halal Stock Screening Methodology (AAOIFI)
- HalalWallet Editorial Policy
- HalalWallet Methodology
- Editorial Policy
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