BOAT vs FTXR

BOATDSonicShares Global Shipping ETF

FTXRCFirst Trust Nasdaq Transportation ETF

In short

BOAT The transportation aisle is mostly trucks, rails and planes. BOAT owns the boats: roughly 50 global container, dry bulk and tanker names that haul world trade, held through one passive shipping index.

FTXR Transportation with a screen on top. FTXR holds about 40 US names that move goods and people (rails, truckers, airlines, parcel), ranked on momentum and profitability instead of sheer size.

Stated mandate

BOAT The Fund seeks to track the Solactive Global Shipping Index before fees and expenses using a passive indexing approach.

FTXR The fund seeks to generally track the price and yield of the Nasdaq US Smart TransportationTM Index before fees and expenses. It uses an indexing approach to replicate the index's holdings and weightings.

Why people hold it

• BOAT Pure-play maritime: container ships, dry bulk carriers and tankers in one ticker, the slice of global trade that truck-and-rail transport funds barely hold.globenewswire.com
• Rules-based and passive. It tracks the Solactive Global Shipping Index, so the book follows published index rules rather than a manager's hunch.
• Global by mandate, which matters in an industry where most shipowners list far from New York.globenewswire.com
• Distributions run on a quarterly cadence, and the portfolio stays compact at roughly 50 names.

• FTXR The Nasdaq US Smart Transportation Index scores companies on momentum and profitability and weights them on those scores, so the biggest firm isn't automatically the biggest position.
• About 40 holdings, all in transportation. A focused read on freight and travel rather than a diluted industrials basket.
• Live since 2016, so it carries a full-cycle record in a niche where narrow funds often don't stick around. Cash goes out quarterly.

Worth knowing

• BOAT Costs 0.69% a year, above the transportation-fund median and well above broad options like IYT (0.38%) and XTN (0.35%).
• Thinly traded and modest in assets, so spreads can widen. Limit orders earn their keep here.
• Shipping is a freight-rate business: cyclical, concentrated in about 50 names, and bumpier than a diversified transport basket.

• FTXR The 0.60% fee sits at the middle of the transportation pack but above plain cap-weighted rivals IYT (0.38%) and XTN (0.35%), so the factor screen carries a price.
• One cyclical corner of the economy, roughly 40 stocks deep: fuel, freight rates and shipping demand hit the whole basket at once, so swings run wider than a broad market fund.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy for the category, which can show up as wider spreads in fast markets.

Full BOAT profile⁠

Full FTXR profile⁠