ABLD vs VYM

ABLDDAbacus FCF Real Assets Leaders ETF

VYMAVanguard High Dividend Yield ETF

In short

ABLD Free cash flow screening pointed at hard assets: US real asset companies filtered for the cash they actually generate. A niche twist in a peer group stuffed with broad, cheap value funds.

VYM The no-frills dividend workhorse. VYM buys the higher-yielding end of the US market, roughly 600 names, for four basis points: no quality screen, no dividend-growth-streak test, just yield, at scale since 2006.

Stated mandate

ABLD The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Abacus FCF Real Assets Leaders Index.

VYM The Fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of common stocks from companies characterized by high dividend yields.

Why people hold it

• ABLD The screen is the whole point: an index applies Abacus FCF's free cash flow model to US real asset names, so profitability, not size alone, decides who gets in.cboe.com
• Rules run it. An index picks the holdings and the fund tracks it, so what you own doesn't hinge on a manager's mood that quarter.
• Live since 2021, and the index-based strategy survived the 2024 handover, when Donoghue Forlines stepped away and FCF Advisors took over and renamed the fund.sec.gov
• Cash comes back on a set schedule: the fund distributes quarterly.

• VYM Four basis points a year, against a peer-group median near 0.32%. Cheaper than cohort neighbors VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%).
• Running since 2006 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so ordinary orders tend to fill at tight spreads.
• Simple mandate: track the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index of US common stocks screened on yield. No manager discretion, no options overlay, plain 1940-Act fund.vanguard.com
• Pays quarterly, and among 100-plus value and multifactor rivals it stands as one of the strongest overall packages in the group.

Worth knowing

• ABLD At 0.39% a year, it costs more than the broad value giants leading its peer group (VONV, VYM). That's the price of a narrower, screened portfolio.
• It's a small, thinly traded fund, so spreads can widen and how you place an order matters more than it would with a mega-cap index product.
• Real assets is a slice, not the market. Property, energy and resource-linked companies dominate the universe, so it can move well out of step with a broad US index.cboe.com

• VYM The screen is yield, not payout growth or dividend quality, so a company can qualify simply because its share price fell.
• This is a value slice by design, tilted to established payers, so it behaves differently from a total US market fund.
• Roughly 600 holdings, but weight leans toward the largest payers, so the top of the roster does more of the work than the count suggests.

Full ABLD profile⁠

Full VYM profile⁠