CRAK vs VDE

CRAKCVanEck Oil Refiners ETF

VDEAVanguard Energy ETF

In short

CRAK The refinery trade in one ticker. CRAK owns the global companies that turn crude into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, businesses whose economics ride the processing spread rather than the price of a barrel.

VDE Energy without the mega-cap tunnel vision. VDE tracks an index of roughly 110 US energy stocks, large down to small cap, for 0.09% a year, and it has been running since 2004.

Stated mandate

CRAK The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS Global Oil Refiners Index, a rules-based modified-capitalization-weighted index covering companies involved in crude-oil refining and related refined petroleum products.

VDE The fund seeks to track the MSCI US Investable Market Energy 25/50 Index, which represents large-, mid-, and small-cap U.S. energy-sector stocks.

Why people hold it

• CRAK A real pure play: the index only admits companies generating at least 50% of revenue from crude oil refining, so you get processors, not drillers with a refinery attached.sec.gov
• Global by design. The index covers the worldwide refining segment and can hold depositary receipts, reaching refiners listed well outside the US.sec.gov
• A different engine from broad energy funds: refiners buy crude and sell gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and naphtha, so the input-to-output spread drives the business.sec.gov
• Trading since 2015, a long run for a single-industry theme fund, and built on a rules-based index rather than a manager's picks.sec.gov

• VDE Costs 0.09% a year, a fraction of what the typical energy sector fund charges.
• Casts a wider net than mega-cap-only energy funds: about 110 large-, mid- and small-cap US names, from the integrated majors to shale drillers and refiners.vanguard.com
• Hugs its benchmark closely and trades actively, which tends to keep spreads slim for everyday buys and sells.
• Live since 2004 and one of the strongest builds in the broad energy group, with a Vanguard fee structure that has only ratcheted downward.

Worth knowing

• CRAK At 0.61% a year, it costs more than broad energy index funds such as XLE and FENY at 0.08%. That is the toll for slicing out one link in the chain.
• Non-diversified and about 30 names, so one refiner's outage or margin miss can move the whole fund.sec.gov
• Overseas holdings bring currency and foreign-market risk, and distributions land annually or semiannually rather than monthly.sec.gov

• VDE One sector, one storyline: this rides crude and natural gas prices, and it swings harder in both directions than a total-market fund.
• Cap-weighted, so a handful of US oil majors carry outsized weight despite the long holdings list; the index's 25/50 rules limit that concentration rather than erase it.vanguard.com
• Income arrives quarterly, not monthly, and moves with what energy companies choose to pay out.

Full CRAK profile⁠

Full VDE profile⁠