AESR vs DFAU: Grades, Fees and Holdings Compared

Anfield U.S. Equity Sector Rotation ETF

AESRDCboe

Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

DFAUANYSE Arca

Overlap

1.6%by weight

Expense ratio

DFAU −0.85pt a year

AESR0.97%DFAU0.12%

Avg volume · 30D

DFAU 14.9×the volume

AESR37.2KDFAU555K

5Y return · a year

AESR +0.1pt

AESR+11.7%DFAU+11.6%

AESR vs DFAU Performance

Oct 29, 2021 – Oct 30, 2026

+73.7%AESR+72.9%DFAU

Expense ratio: AESR 0.97%; DFAU 0.12%, better
Fund size: AESR $246M; DFAU $12.9B
1Y total return: AESR +11.4%; DFAU +13.2%, better
Yield (12M): AESR 20.49%, better; DFAU 0.90%
Holdings: AESR 33; DFAU 2165
Avg volume (30D): AESR 37.2K sh; DFAU 555K sh, better
NAV per share: AESR $19.05; DFAU $52.28
52W range

ETF.net Grade

Pillar letters and Scores for AESR, DFAU, with each pillar’s weight
Pillar	AESR	DFAU
Cost30% weight	F16	A97Higher
Mission25% weight	C48	A83Higher
Risk15% weight	D39	B65Higher
Tradability15% weight	C47	A87Higher
Holdings10% weight	D36	A84Higher
Durability5% weight	A77	A91Higher

Rank among US Active Equity funds

How we build Categories ›

Same Category. AESR and DFAU are both graded against the same 121 US Active Equity funds, so their Grades compare head to head.

US Active Equity⁠

Category · 121 funds

See all 121 ›

DFAU ranks 2nd and AESR 98th of 121 funds in the US Active Equity Category.

Rank 1AAVLCAvantis U.S. Large Cap Equity ETFScore 87
Rank 2ADFAUDimensional US Core Equity Market ETFScore 86
Rank 3ADFACDimensional US Core Equity 2 ETFScore 85
Rank 97DFFOXFundX Future Fund Opportunities ETFScore 34
Rank 98DAESRAnfield U.S. Equity Sector Rotation ETFScore 33
Rank 98DKONGFormidable Fortress ETFScore 33

Our read on each fund

ETF.net Research

AESRDAnfield U.S. Equity Sector Rotation ETF

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

In short

AESR A macro call in ETF form: AESR ranks the S&P 500's 11 sectors, then holds eight to ten sector funds in whatever mix its outlook favors. No index leash, quarterly resets, and a bill that reflects the hands-on work.

DFAU Active management priced like an index fund. Dimensional spreads across roughly 2,400 US stocks, then tilts the weights toward value, profitability and momentum instead of simply mirroring the Russell 3000.

Stated mandate

AESR The Fund seeks capital appreciation. It is actively managed, invests in U.S. equity securities directly or through underlying ETFs, and uses macroeconomic analysis to adjust exposure among equity-market sectors.

DFAU Seeks long-term capital appreciation. It uses an integrated research, portfolio-design, management, and trading process to build a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. companies while balancing long-term return drivers, risk, shorter-term considerations, and trading costs.

Why people hold it

AESR The job is specific: rank the 11 S&P 500 sectors by macro outlook, then hold eight to ten sector ETFs in that order. Rebalanced quarterly, or sooner if conditions shift.cboe.com
Its prospectus says it is not managed relative to an index, so sector weights can sit far from a cap-weighted 500. That freedom to look different is the whole design.sec.gov cboe.com
Trading since December 2019, it has a multi-year record across real market cycles and moderate volume for a fund of its size.

DFAU Charges 0.12% a year, well under the 0.65% median for active US equity funds and the cheapest of the top-graded names in its group (AVLC, DFAC, FELC).
Holds roughly 2,400 US companies, so no single name steers the fund. Whole-market coverage, not a concentrated bet.
Active without the stock-picking drama: it leans weights toward value, profitability and momentum, using the Russell 3000 as its reference point rather than a rigid rulebook.
A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its active US equity peer group.

Worth knowing

AESR It runs 0.97% a year, above the roughly 0.70% median for active US equity funds and multiples of core options like DFAU (0.12%) or DYNF (0.26%).
Mostly a holder of other ETFs, so those underlying funds carry their own expenses, which ride along inside your return on top of the sector calls.regentsparkfunds.com cboe.com
Results hinge on the macro ranking being right. A wrong read on which sectors lead can push returns away from a plain 500 fund in either direction.cboe.com

DFAU Those tilts cut both ways: results can drift from a plain Russell 3000 fund for long stretches, in either direction.
No published index behind it. The trade-off for flexibility is that you're buying Dimensional's process, not a public set of rules you can check line by line.
Distributions land quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than income.

Full AESR profile⁠

Full DFAU profile⁠

AESR vs DFAU Holdings

How AESR and DFAU differ

Overlap by weight

1.6%

Shared holdings make up 11.2% of AESR and 1.6% of DFAU.

Level by level

Holdings16 in both1.6%
Sector11 Sectors86.0%
Countryby domicile97.0%
Asset classEquity100%

Sector

Sector weights in AESR and DFAU, widest gap first
Sector	More in AESRMore in DFAU	AESR	DFAU
Financials	AESR +6.4 points	19.3%	12.9%
Industrials	AESR +4.4 points	13.3%	8.9%
Energy	DFAU +3.6 points	1.3%	4.9%
Consumer Discretionary	DFAU +2.9 points	6.5%	9.4%
Health Care	AESR +2.8 points	12.5%	9.7%
Communication	DFAU +2.5 points	5.5%	8.0%
Utilities	DFAU +1.8 points	0.3%	2.1%
Materials	DFAU +1.7 points	1.0%	2.7%
Consumer Staples	DFAU +1.5 points	3.2%	4.7%
Real Estate	AESR +0.2 points	0.3%	0.1%
Technology	AESR +0.1 points	36.7%	36.6%

Country, concentration and asset class

Country by domicile

Country weights in AESR and DFAU, widest gap first
Country	More in AESRMore in DFAU	AESR	DFAU
United States	DFAU +2.5 points	96.8%	99.3%
Taiwan	AESR +0.9 points	0.9%	0.0%
Canada	AESR +0.6 points	0.6%	0.0%
United Kingdom	AESR +0.6 points	0.7%	0.1%
Other countries (13)	AESR +0.5 points	1.1%	0.6%

Concentration

Weight in the 10 largest Holdings

AESR83.0%
DFAU33.4%

Securities held

AESR33
DFAU2,164

Asset class

AESR: Equity
DFAU: Equity

Holdings

Only in AESR17
In both16
Only in DFAU2,148

Only in AESR

17 securities, 88.8% of AESR by weight

State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust15.34%
ARK Next Generation Technology ETF12.26%
iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF11.39%
iShares Semiconductor ETF11.34%
State Street Communication Services Select Sector SPDR ETF9.23%
iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF8.54%
iShares U.S. Financial Services ETF4.96%
Global X MLP ETF4.50%
Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF3.52%
iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF1.87%
State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF1.56%
Royalty Pharma PLC0.94%
Target Corp0.80%
Quanta Services Inc0.70%
Millicom International Cellular SA0.70%
MSG Knickerbockers Corp0.61%
First American Government Obligations Fund 12/01/20310.52%

Only in DFAU

2,148 securities, 98.3% of DFAU by weight

Apple Inc.7.10%
NVIDIA Corp6.79%
Microsoft Corp5.62%
Amazon.com Inc.3.14%
Alphabet Inc - Class A2.14%
Broadcom Inc2.04%
Meta Platforms Inc1.78%
Alphabet Inc1.76%
Micron Technology Inc.1.62%
Eli Lilly and Company1.45%
Tesla Inc1.35%
JPMorgan Chase & Co1.21%
Berkshire Hathaway Cl-B1.15%
Exxonmobil Holdings Corp1.07%
Advanced Micro Devices1.02%
Visa Inc0.96%
Johnson & Johnson0.78%
Mastercard Inc - A0.69%
Walmart Inc.0.68%
AbbVie Inc.0.61%
Chevron Corp.0.56%
Cisco Systems Inc.0.54%
Merck & Company Inc0.53%
Procter & Gamble Co/The0.52%
Costco Wholesale Corp.0.48%
Intel Corp0.48%
Coca Cola Co.0.46%
Home Depot Inc0.46%
UnitedHealth Group Inc.0.40%
Palantir Technologies Inc0.40%
Bank of America Corp0.39%
Applied Materials Inc.0.39%
Oracle Corp.0.38%
General Electric Company0.38%
Philip Morris Intl0.37%
Amgen Inc0.36%
International Business Ma0.36%
Lam Research Corp0.36%
Texas Instruments Inc.0.36%
Caterpillar Inc.0.35%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.0.35%
Wells Fargo & Co.0.34%
Rtx Corp0.31%
New Linde PLC0.30%
Verizon Communications0.30%
Gilead Sciences Inc0.30%
Qualcomm Inc.0.29%
Morgan Stanley0.29%
Kla Corp0.29%
Conocophillips0.28%

Weight gaps

All 16 Holdings in both funds, largest gap first.

Holding weights in AESR and DFAU, widest gap first
Holding	More in AESRMore in DFAU	AESR	DFAU
Organon & CoOGN	AESR +0.79 points	0.79%	<0.01%
Targa Resources CorpTRGP	AESR +0.74 points	0.86%	0.12%
Revolution Medicines IncRVMD	AESR +0.74 points	0.78%	0.04%
HF Sinclair CorpDINO	AESR +0.71 points	0.76%	0.05%
Littelfuse IncLFUS	AESR +0.70 points	0.72%	0.02%
CSX CorpCSX	AESR +0.70 points	0.87%	0.17%
Darling Ingredients IncDAR	AESR +0.70 points	0.72%	0.02%
Ross Stores IncROST	AESR +0.66 points	0.80%	0.14%
Phillips 66PSX	AESR +0.62 points	0.81%	0.19%
Marathon Petroleum CorpMPC	AESR +0.59 points	0.77%	0.18%
nVent Electric PLCNVT	AESR +0.56 points	0.60%	0.04%
Valero Energy CorpVLO	AESR +0.55 points	0.72%	0.17%
Keysight Technologies IncKEYS	AESR +0.54 points	0.64%	0.10%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise CoHPE	AESR +0.45 points	0.61%	0.16%
Dell Technologies IncDELL	AESR +0.41 points	0.58%	0.17%
MSG Rangers CorpMSGR	AESR +0.21 points	0.21%	<0.01%

All AESR holdings⁠All 2,381 DFAU holdings⁠

How we measure overlap

Each holding counts at its smaller weight in the two funds, summed over the full Holdings. Sector, country and asset class use the same rule on each fund’s split. Cash, FX and derivative lines stay out of the counts. Two bond funds get no overlap figure.

AESR vs DFAU Cost

Overpaying AESR vs DFAU

$15,678

On $10,000 over 30 years. 7% growth a year before fees, expense ratio only.

AESR 0.97%
$18,198
DFAU 0.12%
$2,520

Amount$10,000

Years30 years

Cost over time

AESR 0.97%
DFAU 0.12%
Overpaying

Year by year

Year	AESR	DFAU	Overpaying
10	$1,712	$220	$1,492
20	$6,443	$859	$5,584
30	$18,198	$2,520	$15,678

Expense ratio

0.97%AESR
0.12%DFAU, cheaper

DFAU0.12%AESR0.97%

0.00%2.89%

Middle half of US Active Equity funds
Median 0.68%

DFAU 4th cheapest of 121 funds

AESR 102nd cheapest of 121 funds

AESR vs DFAU Dividends

Last 12 months to Oct 30, 2026

Yield (12M): AESR 20.49%, better; DFAU 0.90%
Payout (12M): AESR $3.90; DFAU $0.47
Last payment: AESR $3.90; DFAU $0.12
Ex-dividend: AESR Dec 12, 2025; DFAU Sep 22, 2026
Paid on: AESR Dec 15, 2025; DFAU Sep 24, 2026
Frequency: AESR Twice a year; DFAU Quarterly

Distribution history

Per share, 2019 to 2026, same scale for both

AESRTwice a year · 13 paymentsAll AESR payments⁠

DFAUQuarterly · 24 paymentsAll DFAU payments⁠

AESR vs DFAU Risk

Fall from peak · 5 years

AESR
DFAU

Risk facts

VolatilityStd dev, 3 years: AESR 15.7%DFAU 12.4%, better
Return per unit of riskSharpe ratio, 3 years: AESR 1.28DFAU 1.38, better
Worst fallMax drawdown, 5 years: AESR −25.0%DFAU −23.6%, better
Market sensitivityBeta, 5 years: AESR 1.17DFAU 1.01; Market = 1

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