AADR vs AVDS

AADRDAdvisorShares Dorsey Wright

AVDSAAvantis International Small Cap Equity ETF

In short

AADR Most international funds buy the whole market and sit still. AADR runs a Dorsey Wright relative-strength playbook instead: rank stocks on momentum, hold about 40 of the leaders, and rotate out of the laggards.

AVDS Avantis casts a wide net: roughly 3,000 non-US developed small caps, weighted with an eye on price, profitability and how much cash companies plow back in. Active management that looks a lot like an index fund with its thumb on the scale.

Stated mandate

AADR The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation above international benchmarks such as the MSCI EAFE Index.

AVDS The ETF seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in a broad group of non-U.S. small-cap companies and considering valuation, profitability, and investment levels when selecting and weighting securities.

Why people hold it

• AADR The momentum bet is the product, not a tilt. Its relative-strength screen is openly advertised, and the stated goal is capital appreciation above international benchmarks like the MSCI EAFE Index.advisorshares.com
• Concentrated on purpose: roughly 40 names spanning developed and emerging markets, so individual picks carry real weight instead of getting diluted across hundreds of positions.
• Live since 2010, giving the relative-strength approach a long public record across several very different international market cycles. Distributions come quarterly.

• AVDS Charges 0.30% a year, about half the typical fee in its active international peer group. Cheap is a durable edge in a corner of the market where fees usually run high.
• Roughly 3,000 holdings, so no single stock or country steers the outcome. This is small-cap breadth, not a concentrated stock-picking bet.
• The tilts are the whole design: valuation, profitability and investment levels shape both what it owns and how much of each, measured against MSCI World ex USA Small Cap.avantisinvestors.com
• Sits among the strongest builds in a crowded field of active international equity funds. Broad, systematic, low-fee: the boxes that tend to stay ticked.

Worth knowing

• AADR At 1.17% a year, it costs roughly double the typical active international equity fund, and index-flavored peers like AVDE and DFIC charge a small fraction of that.
• A small fund that trades thinly, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the category's heavyweights.
• Momentum leadership rotates. A concentrated book chasing relative strength can turn over often and move very differently from broad EAFE exposure in either direction.

• AVDS Thinly traded compared with the big international names. Limit orders and a look at the spread earn their keep here.
• Launched in 2023, so the live record is short even though the approach behind it is not new.
• Costs more than Avantis' broad international fund AVDE (0.23%). Small caps abroad are pricier to research and trade, and they swing harder.

Full AADR profile⁠

Full AVDS profile⁠