AZTD vs SCZ

AZTDDAztlan Global Stock Selection Dm SMID ETF

SCZAiShares MSCI EAFE Small-Cap ETF

In short

AZTD Most developed-market small-cap funds hand you thousands of names. AZTD screens North America, Western Europe and Asia on six factors and keeps about 40. A boutique's high-conviction take on SMID, priced accordingly.

SCZ The purist's take on foreign small caps: developed markets only, outside the US and Canada. Trading since 2007, SCZ follows the MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index, so Japan, Europe and Australia are in and emerging markets stay out.

Stated mandate

AZTD The Fund passively tracks the Solactive Aztlan Global Developed Markets SMID Cap Index before fees and expenses.

SCZ The fund seeks to track an index of small-cap equities from developed markets outside the United States and Canada, providing international diversification and exposure to overseas small-cap stocks.

Why people hold it

• AZTD Six factors (value, cash flow, capital structure, growth, EPS revisions, momentum) get equal say, and component selection is fully rule-based, not a manager's call.solactive.comsolactive.com 2
• Roughly 40 names spread across North America, Western Europe and Asia. Real conviction, not a closet copy of a thousand-stock global small-cap benchmark.solactive.com
• Health care is included but the pharmaceutical sub-sector is screened out, tilting the sleeve toward devices and services over drug-pipeline bets.solactive.com
• It tracks a published Solactive index, so the rulebook and each rebalance list are out in the open at the index sponsor.solactive.com

• SCZ A clean, literal mandate: small companies in developed markets outside the US and Canada, with nothing else slipping into the basket.ishares.com
• It follows its stated index closely, one of the tighter implementations in the international small-cap group.
• Live since December 2007 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, the kind of scale that supports steady day-to-day liquidity.
• The 0.40% fee lands right at the median for its category, so the EAFE-specific screen doesn't carry a premium price.

Worth knowing

• AZTD 0.75% a year runs above the median for its international equity peer group, and well above core options like AVDE (0.23%) and DFIC (0.22%).
• A small fund that trades thinly. Limit orders matter here, and spreads can be wider than on the category's mainstream names.
• About 40 stocks means single names move the fund far more than they would inside a broad developed-markets index.

• SCZ Median is not cheap here. VSS and SCHC charge 0.06% for their own ex-US small-cap baskets, several times less than SCZ's 0.40%.
• Developed markets only. Emerging-market small caps sit outside the mandate, unlike all-world peers such as VSS.
• The index is unhedged, so currency moves land on top of small-cap price swings, a bumpier ride than developed large-cap benchmarks.

Full AZTD profile⁠

Full SCZ profile⁠