AVTM vs BFLX

AVTMAAvantis Total Equity Markets ETF 1

BFLXAiShares Flexible Equity Active ETF

In short

AVTM Avantis' one-ticket world stock market: roughly 1,700 holdings, U.S. names owned directly and the overseas sleeves held through sister Avantis funds, all tilted toward cheaper, more profitable companies.

BFLX A hedge-fund move in an ETF wrapper: BFLX runs more than 100% long in global stocks and shorts its least-favored names, staying net long throughout. Systematic signals plus human judgment, 0.40% a year.

Stated mandate

AVTM Seeks long-term capital appreciation through a broadly diversified total-market equity allocation, using individual securities and Avantis ETFs while emphasizing securities expected to offer higher returns or better risk characteristics than a passive market-capitalization-weighted index.

BFLX The fund seeks total return through a systematic, actively managed global-equity approach. It may use both long and short positions while maintaining net long exposure.

Why people hold it

• AVTM Costs 0.22% net of a fee waiver (0.23% gross), a notch under stablemate AVGE at 0.23% and below the typical fee in its category.
• Owns U.S. companies directly rather than only stacking funds, then uses Avantis ETFs for developed and emerging markets abroad. One ticket, all market caps.sec.gov
• Benchmarked to 85% Russell 3000 and 15% MSCI ACWI ex-US IMI: a deliberately U.S.-heavy world portfolio, not a global cap-weight split.avantisinvestors.com
• One of the stronger builds in a crowded field of actively managed global equity funds.

• BFLX The 130/30 build in plain English: stretch the long book past 100% of assets, short the least-favored names to fund it, and keep net exposure long global equities.blackrock.com
• 0.40% a year, less than the typical fund in its global active-equity peer group, for machinery (shorting, extension) that plain index funds do not offer.
• Run by BlackRock's Global Allocation systematic team against the MSCI World Index, and already a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively.blackrock.com
• Roughly 500 positions, so it reads as a broad global book rather than a few concentrated bets.

Worth knowing

• AVTM Avantis flags that much of the starting portfolio sits on a low tax basis, so the fund may realize and distribute more capital gains than other ETFs.avantisinvestors.com
• Trades thinly next to the index giants in its category, so spreads and order size matter more here.
• Launched January 2026, so the history is short, and with no index to follow the portfolio reflects Avantis' own valuation and profitability tilts.sec.gov

• BFLX Shorting brings costs and risks pure long investing does not: borrow fees, and a short that moves against the fund has no natural ceiling on its loss.ishares.com
• It launched in 2026, so there is far less history here than behind the decades-old global index funds sitting next to it.
• Cheaper routes to global equity exist: index-based peers such as AVGE and DFAW charge roughly half as much, without the shorts or the active calls.

Full AVTM profile⁠

Full BFLX profile⁠