CSMD vs DUSG

CSMDCCongress SMID Growth ETF

DUSGAU.S. Small Cap Growth Portfolio: ETF Class Shares

In short

CSMD A stock picker in a corner of the market dominated by rules-based funds. Congress hunts growth across the small-and-mid-cap band instead of one style box, and charges above the category median for a human team's judgment.

DUSG A Dimensional small-cap growth strategy that finally got a ticker. DUSG is an exchange-traded share class of a portfolio running since 2012, screening small US companies for high profitability and cheaper relative price.

Stated mandate

CSMD The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

DUSG The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• CSMD Simple mandate, wide net: long-term capital appreciation, with a SMID remit that lets the managers own smaller and mid-sized names instead of being boxed into one size band.
• Trading is the smoothest part of the package. It changes hands often enough that ordinary retail-sized orders aren't wrestling a thin market.
• Not a just-launched experiment: live since 2023, with real assets behind it rather than a rounding error, run by Congress Asset Management.

• DUSG Not a startup fund with a launch-day portfolio. The underlying strategy has run since 2012, and the ETF class is a new door into the same book of stocks.businesswire.com
• The screen does two jobs at once: small-cap growth companies, filtered for high profitability and lower relative price, instead of whatever the index says is popular.dimensional.com
• 0.33% a year for a systematically managed factor strategy, sitting right around the middle of the multifactor pack rather than at the premium end.
• Broad and diversified by design, holding a wide sweep of US small caps in a billion-dollar-plus portfolio, not a handful of high-conviction names.dimensional.com

Worth knowing

• CSMD Cost is the trade-off. At 0.68% a year it sits above the typical fund in its category, while systematic rivals like AVUV run 0.25% and DUHP 0.20%.
• No index rulebook to check it against. This is a discretionary portfolio in a slice of the market that swings harder than large caps.
• Built for growth, not a paycheck: the stated goal is capital appreciation, and the fund has not been running a regular distribution.

• DUSG It trades thinly. Light volume can mean wider gaps between the bid and the ask than you get with the household-name index ETFs.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, not monthly. The stated job here is long-term capital appreciation, not a paycheck.
• Fair pricing, not bargain pricing: broad US growth exposure in the same peer group costs far less (IUSG, 0.04%), minus the small-cap and profitability screens.

Full CSMD profile⁠

Full DUSG profile⁠