BRAZ vs BRF

BRAZCGlobal X Brazil Active ETF

BRFCVanEck Brazil Small-Cap ETF

In short

BRAZ Brazil, stock-picked. Global X launched BRAZ in 2023 as the only actively managed Brazil ETF on the US market: a couple dozen names chosen by an emerging-markets team rather than the weights a cap-weighted index hands you. Focused mandate, active price tag.

BRF Brazil without the giants. BRF tracks an index of roughly 90 Brazilian small caps, a narrower and more domestic slice than the broad country funds, and it has been doing that job since 2009.

Stated mandate

BRAZ The fund seeks long-term capital growth.

BRF The fund seeks to replicate, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS Brazil Small-Cap Index.

Why people hold it

• BRAZ The active outlier on a shelf of Brazil index trackers. It doesn't replicate a benchmark, so managers set position sizes themselves instead of inheriting them.globalxetfs.com
• Concentrated on purpose: a high-conviction book of roughly two dozen Brazilian stocks, not a broad market sweep.prnewswire.com
• Run since its 2023 launch by Global X's emerging markets team, using parent Mirae's risk framework for position and sector limits.prnewswire.com
• The mandate is literal and the portfolio honors it: Brazilian equities, long-term capital growth, no style drift into neighboring markets.

• BRF A pure index play on Brazilian small caps: roughly 90 names, one mandate, no drift into other markets or size bands.
• A different cut of Brazil than broad-market peers EWZ and FLBR: same country, opposite end of the size spectrum.
• Live since 2009, with more than a decade of real trading history across Brazil's boom and bust cycles.
• Rules-based from top to bottom: it replicates the MVIS Brazil Small-Cap Index rather than letting a manager pick the winners.

Worth knowing

• BRAZ At 0.75% a year, it costs more than the typical Brazil fund and nearly four times the cheapest index option in the group (FLBR, 0.19%).
• Small asset base and thin trading volume, so spreads can widen. Limit orders and a look at the quote matter more here than with the category's household names.
• Roughly two dozen holdings in one emerging market means single-stock and single-country moves land hard. Distributions come annually or semiannually, not monthly.

• BRF The 0.60% fee sits at the middle of the Brazil ETF pack, and broad-market FLBR charges 0.19%. The premium buys the small-cap tilt, not a discount.
• A small fund that trades lightly, so spreads tend to be wider than on the headline Brazil ETFs, especially away from Brazilian market hours.
• One country, one size band: currency moves and local politics land harder here than in a diversified emerging-markets fund. Income arrives once or twice a year, not monthly.

Full BRAZ profile⁠

Full BRF profile⁠