AVLC vs PQUS

AVLCAAvantis U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF

PQUSAPictet AI Enhanced US Equity ETF

In short

AVLC Active management with index-fund manners: roughly 900 U.S. large caps, with the dial turned toward cheaper, more profitable companies. Avantis charges 0.15% a year to do it.

PQUS An S&P 500 challenger on a short leash: an AI-driven model makes small tilts around the benchmark instead of big bets, and charges 0.22% a year, roughly a third of what the typical active US equity fund costs.

Stated mandate

AVLC The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It invests broadly in U.S. large-capitalization companies while using active decisions to overweight lower valuations and higher profitability.

PQUS The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It is an actively managed ETF using an AI-enhanced, low-tracking-error strategy to invest in U.S. equity securities and seek to outperform the S&P 500 Index.

Why people hold it

• AVLC 0.15% a year against a 0.65% median for active U.S. equity funds. That is passive-style pricing on an actively run book.
• Holds about 900 names against the Russell 1000, so the value and profitability tilts sit on top of broad market exposure instead of a concentrated bet.avantisinvestors.com
• One of the stronger builds in the active U.S. equity group, priced in the same neighborhood as the Dimensional core funds (DFAU, DFAC) it competes with.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades steadily, so spreads and liquidity are rarely the sticking point. Distributions are paid quarterly.

• PQUS Costs 0.22% a year versus a 0.65% median for active US equity funds, and undercuts most competitors that benchmark themselves to the S&P 500 (TSPA, JPEF, HELO all charge more).
• Low tracking error is the whole design. The model tilts around the S&P 500 rather than wandering off it, so the portfolio keeps broad large-cap US exposure while the active work happens at the margins.
• A cheap active wrapper from a European house building out a US lineup: 1940 Act ETF, US equities only, one stated job, which is long-term capital appreciation against the S&P 500.
• Grades in the top quartile of the active US equity funds we cover, with the low fee doing much of the work.

Worth knowing

• AVLC Launched in 2023. The tilt philosophy is well worn at Avantis, but this fund's own live record is still short.
• Active, not index-tracking. The Russell 1000 is a reference point, not a leash, so holdings and weights can drift from it.
• Leaning toward cheaper, higher-profitability companies means stretches where it moves differently from the plain cap-weighted market, in either direction.avantisinvestors.com

• PQUS A 2026 launch, so the live record is short. Any read on how the model handles a real drawdown rests on limited history.
• Small and thinly traded next to the index giants, so bid-ask spreads and order size matter more here than with a mega-fund.
• Hugging the index cuts both ways: by design, the gap between this and a plain S&P 500 fund stays narrow in either direction. It also targets appreciation, not income.

Full AVLC profile⁠

Full PQUS profile⁠