Dimensional - Core Fixed Income ETF
$40.51−0.36 (−0.89%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.18%
- Fund size
- $11.3B
- 1Y return
- −0.6%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 4.45%
- Holdings
- 1696
- Volume · 30D
- 1.4M sh
- NAV per share
- $40.88
- 52W range
The ETF.net DFCF Grade
Score 73 of 100 sits in the A band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.AScore 73Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 100Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 43Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 94Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.DScore 27Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 76Category rank
Our read on DFCF
ADimensional's take on the boring middle of a bond sleeve: an actively run core portfolio built to maximize total return from its eligible universe rather than shadow an index, priced at half what the average aggregate bond ETF charges.
The fund seeks to maximize total returns from its universe of eligible investments.
Why people hold it
- 0.18% a year, half the typical fee in the aggregate bond category, for a manager-run portfolio instead of an index tracker.
- Roughly 1,700 bonds, a multi-billion-dollar asset base, and steady trading volume, so getting in and out rarely means fighting the spread.
- Pays monthly, and what it holds lines up closely with the mandate in its own documents. Among aggregate bond ETFs, that combination puts it in the upper tier.
Worth knowing
- Cheap for active, not cheap outright. Index-tracking rivals BND, SPAB and SCHZ charge 0.03%, so this costs meaningfully more per year.
- No declared index behind it. The mandate is to maximize total return from an eligible universe, which means manager judgment, not a published benchmark, shapes the portfolio.
- Launched in 2021, giving it a shorter history than the long-running core bond names it sits beside.
DFCF Holdings
- Bonds
- 1,696
- 39%
- FNMA 30YR TBA OCT 6%
Sectors
- Government39.8%
- Corporate39.5%
- Securitized20.7%
Geography
- United States87.12%
- Canada2.11%
- Japan2.07%
- New Zealand1.55%
- Australia1.51%
- Netherlands1.06%
- Norway0.89%
- France0.82%
- 2.85%
DFCF Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | DFCF |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −1.6% |
| 1 month | −1.4% |
| 3 months | −2.0% |
| 1 year | −0.6% |
| 3 years | +4.6% |
| 5 years | — |
| 10 years | — |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | DFCF |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −1.6% | |
| 2025 | +7.9% | |
| 2024 | +1.9% | |
| 2023 | +6.9% | |
| 2022 | −14.5% | |
| 2021 | +0.2% |
DFCF in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on DFCF yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
DFCF Dividends
- 4.45%
- $1.82
- $0.15 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 18, 2026 | Aug 20, 2026 | $0.15 |
| Jul 21, 2026 | Jul 23, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Jun 23, 2026 | Jun 25, 2026 | $0.17 |
| May 19, 2026 | May 21, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Apr 21, 2026 | Apr 23, 2026 | $0.13 |
| Mar 24, 2026 | Mar 26, 2026 | $0.18 |
| Feb 18, 2026 | Feb 20, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Jan 21, 2026 | Jan 23, 2026 | $0.04 |
| Dec 16, 2025 | Dec 18, 2025 | $0.29 |
| Nov 18, 2025 | Nov 20, 2025 | $0.19 |
| Oct 21, 2025 | Oct 23, 2025 | $0.15 |
| Sep 23, 2025 | Sep 25, 2025 | $0.15 |
DFCF Risk
- 5.3%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.04
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −19.6%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.93
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
DFCF Cost
- The middle half of US Aggregate Bond funds
- Median 0.34%
29 of the 112 US Aggregate Bond funds charge less.