CGGR vs DFAU

CGGRBCapital Group Growth ETF

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

In short

CGGR Old-line active stock picking, delivered in an ETF shell. It hunts capital appreciation across roughly a hundred companies and charges 0.39% a year, undercutting most active US equity ETFs. Live since 2022 and already a multi-billion-dollar fund.

DFAU Active management priced like an index fund. Dimensional spreads across roughly 2,400 US stocks, then tilts the weights toward value, profitability and momentum instead of simply mirroring the Russell 3000.

Stated mandate

CGGR The fund seeks growth of capital by investing in a broad group of companies that appear to offer opportunities for capital appreciation.

DFAU Seeks long-term capital appreciation. It uses an integrated research, portfolio-design, management, and trading process to build a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. companies while balancing long-term return drivers, risk, shorter-term considerations, and trading costs.

Why people hold it

• CGGR 0.39% a year for active management, well under the typical active US equity ETF fee.
• Roughly a hundred holdings: real stock picking, not an index in disguise, without betting the farm on a handful of names.
• The portfolio matches its stated growth-of-capital mandate closely, and it stands in the upper tier of a crowded active US equity field.
• Multi-billion-dollar asset base and steady trading volume, so spreads tend to stay manageable for everyday orders.

• DFAU Charges 0.12% a year, well under the 0.65% median for active US equity funds and the cheapest of the top-graded names in its group (AVLC, DFAC, FELC).
• Holds roughly 2,400 US companies, so no single name steers the fund. Whole-market coverage, not a concentrated bet.
• Active without the stock-picking drama: it leans weights toward value, profitability and momentum, using the Russell 3000 as its reference point rather than a rigid rulebook.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its active US equity peer group.

Worth knowing

• CGGR Growth mandates swing harder than the broad market. Drawdowns here have historically run deeper than a plain total-market fund.
• Cheap for active, not cheap outright: systematic peers like DFAU (0.12%) and AVLC (0.15%) cost a fraction of it.
• Distributions come annually or semiannually, and the mandate allows international names alongside US stocks.

• DFAU Those tilts cut both ways: results can drift from a plain Russell 3000 fund for long stretches, in either direction.
• No published index behind it. The trade-off for flexibility is that you're buying Dimensional's process, not a public set of rules you can check line by line.
• Distributions land quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than income.

Full CGGR profile⁠

Full DFAU profile⁠