ACSI vs SPYV

ACSIDAmerican Customer Satisfaction ETF

SPYVAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Value ETF

In short

ACSI Most index funds rank stocks by size or price. This one ranks them by how happy the customers are, turning the long-running American Customer Satisfaction Index survey data into a concentrated basket of roughly 40 US stocks.

SPYV The value side of the S&P 500, tracked since 2000 for four basis points. It does one thing: hold the index names that screen cheap, and charge close to nothing for the privilege.

Stated mandate

ACSI The Fund passively tracks the American Customer Satisfaction Investable Index before fees and expenses. The index selects U.S.-listed companies using customer-satisfaction data and a rules-based methodology.

SPYV The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the S&P 500 Value Index.

Why people hold it

• ACSI The screen is survey data, not the balance sheet. Index rules select US-listed companies using customer-satisfaction scores, an input you will not find in a standard value or momentum sort.
• The data predates the fund by decades. The ACSI has run customer interviews through a University of Michigan econometric model since 1994, covering ten sectors of the US economy.theacsi.orgumich.edu
• Rules-based and passive: the index picks, not a manager's gut. The fund has been running this same mandate since its 2016 launch, so the idea has been tested in live markets.

• SPYV 0.04% a year. VOOV tracks the identical S&P 500 Value Index and charges 0.07%, so this is the same exposure at a lower fee.
• Trading since 2000 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands actively, so the plumbing is well worn.
• No stock picking, no factor secret sauce: it aims to match the S&P 500 Value Index before fees, and it is one of the cleaner implementations in its peer group.ssga.com

Worth knowing

• ACSI At 0.65% a year it runs above the 0.45% median for index-tracking funds in its group, and many times the cost of plain broad-market trackers like SCHK at 0.03%.
• It trades thinly next to mainstream index funds, so spreads can widen and the price on screen can sit away from the value of what is inside.
• About 40 holdings means each name carries real weight, and a satisfaction screen can land the sector mix well away from a broad US market fund. Distributions come once or twice a year.

• SPYV This is one style slice, roughly 400 value-screened names, not the whole S&P 500. It will move differently from the full index.
• Value goes through long stretches in and out of favor. The fund follows the index rules either way, with no manager stepping in.
• Distributions land quarterly, not monthly.

Full ACSI profile⁠

Full SPYV profile⁠