DCOR vs DVLU

DCORAU.S. Core Equity 1 Portfolio ETF Class Shares

DVLUCFirst Trust Dorsey Wright Momentum & Value ETF

In short

DCOR Index-fund breadth with an active steering wheel: roughly 2,300 US stocks weighted toward smaller, cheaper, more profitable companies, for 0.14% a year. Dimensional's long-running core equity playbook, in an ETF since 2023.

DVLU Value and momentum usually pull in opposite directions. DVLU's Dorsey Wright index tries to own the overlap, packing it into about 50 US stocks. A niche, higher-cost take on factor investing that has been running since 2018.

Stated mandate

DCOR The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. equities. Its approach combines portfolio design, research, management, and trading while emphasizing long-term expected-return drivers.

DVLU The Fund seeks to track the Dorsey Wright Momentum Plus ValueTM Index before fees and expenses, normally investing at least 90% of net assets in its equity securities.

Why people hold it

• DCOR 0.14% a year, well under half the typical fee among US multifactor peers.
• Roughly 2,300 holdings makes this a whole-market core position, not a factor slice, with the smaller-cap, value and profitability tilts built into the weights.
• What the prospectus advertises is what the portfolio holds: broad US equity, tilted to cheaper and more profitable names. One of the tightest mandate fits in its peer group.

• DVLU Momentum and value ride in one rules-based index rather than two separate funds. At about 50 US stocks, it can look genuinely different from a plain value benchmark.ftportfolios.com
• The Dorsey Wright Momentum Plus Value Index picks the names, not a manager's gut. Live since 2018, so there is a real multi-cycle record to inspect.
• The mandate is tight: normally at least 90% of net assets sit in the index's own stocks, so you get the strategy on the tin. Distributions come quarterly.ftportfolios.com

Worth knowing

• DCOR Actively managed with no index to replicate, so the holdings rest on Dimensional's judgment and turnover can run higher than an index fund's.sec.gov
• The 0.14% is net of a contractual fee waiver; the gross fee in the prospectus is higher, and the waiver runs on a renewable term.sec.gov
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so spreads can be wider than at the biggest names in the category.

• DVLU At 0.60% a year, it runs well above the typical US multifactor fund's 0.32%, and shelf heavyweights like VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%) charge a fraction of it.
• A small fund that trades thinly. That usually means wider bid-ask spreads and more attention needed on order entry than with the category's giants.
• About 50 names and a factor blend that can get whipsawed when market leadership turns. Results can diverge sharply from a broad value index, in both directions.

Full DCOR profile⁠

Full DVLU profile⁠