AVDS vs MOTI

AVDSAAvantis International Small Cap Equity ETF

MOTIDVanEck Morningstar International Moat 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.

MOTI The international cousin of the US moat trade: Morningstar's analysts flag companies with durable competitive advantages outside America, and the index only buys the ones trading at attractive prices. Roughly 60 names, zero US exposure.

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.

MOTI The fund seeks to replicate, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Morningstar Global Markets ex-US Wide Moat Focus Index.

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.

• MOTI Two screens, not one: a company needs Morningstar's wide moat rating and an attractive valuation to enter the index. Quality and value, both advertised up front.vaneck.com
• About 60 stocks, so each holding actually matters. That is a different animal from ex-US index funds carrying hundreds or thousands of names.
• At 0.58% a year it sits just under the median fee in its international peer group, running the same rules-based moat mandate since its 2015 launch.

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.

• MOTI Concentration cuts both ways: with roughly 60 names, one company's stumble lands harder than it would inside a broad international index fund.
• Plain-vanilla rivals cost far less. AVDE and DFIC deliver broad international exposure for under a quarter of a percent.
• One of the less-traded funds in its category, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than on the big international index products.

Full AVDS profile⁠

Full MOTI profile⁠