I believe I saw Bob Pisani on CNBC say that the XLU actually outperformed the QQQ over 25 years if you reinvested the dividends. That's a bit exaggerated since the 2000-2003 bear market destroyed the NASDAQ index for a while. I'm pretty sure the 15 year return of QQQ vs. XLU isn't even close. Actually I looked at the data and the 25 year might be close but the 15 year is a blowout as I thought.
Interesting. I don't think it applies to my shorter term trading of it though unless I am missing what you are getting at.