AVDS vs DUKX

AVDSAAvantis International Small Cap Equity ETF

DUKXDOcean Park International ETF

In short

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.

DUKX Most international funds ride out every drawdown. DUKX doesn't try to: it's a trend-following wrapper that rotates among international equity ETFs showing uptrends and can retreat to cash equivalents when they aren't.

Stated mandate

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.

DUKX The Fund seeks total return while limiting downside exposure. It actively allocates among unaffiliated international equity ETFs and cash equivalents.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• DUKX The sell rule is the product. A proprietary trailing stop discipline aims to limit drawdowns, and the fund can sit in cash equivalents when international ETFs stop trending up.oceanparkam.comoceanparketfs.com
• Index agnostic by design. Its hunting ground spans developed and emerging markets, regions, single countries, styles and factors, instead of one fixed benchmark.oceanparkam.comoceanparketfs.com
• Builds the portfolio from unaffiliated ETFs, so the exposure comes from third-party building blocks rather than a house-brand fund stuffed with its own products.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• DUKX Cost is the sticking point: 1.03% against a category median near 0.60%, with the underlying ETFs' own fees on top. It's why the fund lands in the bottom quartile of its peer group.oceanparketfs.com
• A small, thinly traded fund. Spreads and order handling matter more here than with the index heavyweights that dominate the category, such as AVDE and DFIC.
• Trend rules cut both ways: selling into downtrends can leave a strategy out of position when markets snap back. The live record starts at the July 2024 launch.oceanparketfs.com

Full AVDS profile⁠

Full DUKX profile⁠