ABEQ vs SEIV

ABEQDAbsolute Select Value ETF

SEIVASEI QiM U.S. Large Cap Value Active ETF

In short

ABEQ A stock picker in a cohort full of rules-based screens. ABEQ hunts US companies trading at deep discounts to its subadviser's estimate of fair value, aiming at positive absolute returns rather than shadowing a value benchmark.

SEIV Active quant value stock-picking at an index-fund price. SEIV screens U.S. large caps for cheap valuations plus quality, momentum and low volatility, then runs a concentrated book of roughly 80 names for 0.15% a year.

Stated mandate

ABEQ The Fund seeks positive absolute returns through active management of primarily U.S. equity securities selected for substantial discounts to the subadviser’s estimate of fair value.

SEIV The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through primarily U.S. common stocks priced below fundamental valuation measures, using a quantitative, active stock-selection approach.

Why people hold it

• ABEQ A real active mandate: buy US equities at substantial discounts to the subadviser's fair-value estimate, with positive absolute returns as the stated goal instead of index-relative wins.
• That absolute-return framing is unusual here. The heavyweights in US value ETFs are factor-index products (AVLV, WTV, DFLV), so this is a genuinely different way to own cheap stocks.
• Trading since January 2020, so the strategy has a multi-year live record in real markets rather than a backtest, and it runs as a standard 1940 Act ETF.

• SEIV 0.15% a year for genuine active selection, against a 0.55% median in its U.S. value peer group. It matches the cheapest large-value quant funds rather than charging active prices.
• Value is not the only screen. The model also weighs quality, momentum and low volatility, which is how a cheap-stock strategy tries to avoid the cheap-for-a-reason trap.
• Other funds measured against the S&P 500 in this cohort charge far more (LSVD 0.40%, GSPY 0.50%, VNSE 1.34%). SEIV runs its version at 0.15%.
• Sits among the strongest implementations in a crowded U.S. value field, and trades with enough regular activity to be workable for ordinary retail order sizes.

Worth knowing

• ABEQ 0.85% a year is the price of a human at the wheel. Systematic value peers charge a fraction of that (WTV at 0.12%, AVLV at 0.15%), so the stock picking has real cost to overcome.
• Thinly traded compared with the index giants in the value aisle. Spreads can be wider, and sizeable orders are worth working with limits rather than at market.
• No benchmark to check the work against: outcomes hinge on one subadviser's fair-value judgments, and the portfolio can look nothing like a conventional value screen.

• SEIV About 80 stocks measured against a 500-name benchmark. That concentration means stretches where it looks nothing like the S&P 500, in either direction.
• Launched in 2022, so the live record is short, and the asset base is mid-sized rather than among the giants of the value aisle.
• You get the factor recipe, not the trade-by-trade logic: selection sits inside a quantitative model. Distributions land quarterly, not monthly.

Full ABEQ profile⁠

Full SEIV profile⁠