AVDS vs IMOM

AVDSAAvantis International Small Cap Equity ETF

IMOMCAlpha Architect International Quantitative Momentum 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.

IMOM Not a watered-down momentum tilt. IMOM holds roughly 50 international stocks with the strongest momentum and skips everything else, a rules-based quant playbook Alpha Architect has run since 2015 for 0.38% a year.

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.

IMOM The fund seeks potential excess returns by maintaining consistent exposure to the strongest momentum stocks in international markets.

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.

• IMOM Concentration is the point: about 50 international names picked purely on momentum, not a broad index with a momentum tilt bolted on top.
• At 0.38% a year, it undercuts the typical active international fund in its group, where the median fee runs 0.60%.
• Live since December 2015 on the same momentum rules, through several full international market cycles.
• Stands in the upper half of its active international peer group, a solid showing for a strategy this specialized.

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.

• IMOM Shares trade thinly, so on a single trade the bid-ask spread can cost more than a full year of the expense ratio.
• Roughly 50 stocks means results can diverge widely from broad international indexes in either direction, and momentum can turn quickly.
• Cheaper, broader peers exist in the group (AVDE at 0.23%, DFIC at 0.22%), but they own the market; IMOM buys one factor.

Full AVDS profile⁠

Full IMOM profile⁠