DCOR vs QQEW

DCORAU.S. Core Equity 1 Portfolio ETF Class Shares

QQEWCFirst Trust Nasdaq-100 Select Equal Weight 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.

QQEW Same Nasdaq-100 neighborhood, very different math: QQEW screens the names on a blended quality and growth score, then weights them roughly evenly, so a handful of megacaps don't run the whole portfolio.

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.

QQEW The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq-100 Select Equal WeightTM Index before fees and expenses, normally investing at least 80% of net assets in index 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.

• QQEW Equal weighting is the whole point. Each of the roughly 100 holdings gets a similar slice at rebalance, so the fund's path leans on the broad Nasdaq-100 field rather than its four or five biggest names.
• Not a blind equal-weight sleeve. The index picks its lineup using a Blended Quality and Growth Score, so the equal weighting is applied to a screened list, not the raw membership roll.ftportfolios.com
• Live since 2006, with billions in assets and quarterly distributions. This is a long-tenured fund that has traded through several full market cycles, not a recent thematic launch.
• The mandate is tight and testable: at least 80% of net assets in the securities of its named index, so what you see in the index rulebook is what drives the portfolio.

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.

• QQEW Fees are the trade-off. At 0.55%, QQEW costs meaningfully more than the typical fund in its multifactor peer group, where broad names like VYM and IUSG run at a fraction of that.
• It trades lightly next to the household-name Nasdaq trackers, so bid-ask spreads can be wider, especially in fast markets or on large orders.
• Still a concentrated slice: roughly 100 companies from one exchange's large-cap index. Equal weighting spreads the bets inside that pool, it doesn't broaden the pool.

Full DCOR profile⁠

Full QQEW profile⁠