DDLS vs FNDC

DDLSCWisdomTree Dynamic International SmallCap Equity ETF

FNDCASchwab Fundamental International Small Company Index ETF

In short

DDLS Most international small-cap funds pick a lane on currency: fully exposed or fully hedged. DDLS takes a third path, screening developed-market small caps outside the US and Canada for dividend payers, then moving its dollar hedge by rule.

FNDC Schwab's contrarian cut of international small caps: instead of letting share price set position size, FNDC weights roughly 1,600 developed-market small companies by fundamental measures of size, which bakes in a value tilt.

Stated mandate

DDLS The fund seeks exposure to small-capitalization, dividend-paying companies in the industrialized world outside the United States and Canada, with dynamic hedging of applicable foreign-currency fluctuations against the U.S. dollar.

FNDC The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of an index measuring small non-U.S. developed-market companies according to fundamental size and weighting.

Why people hold it

• DDLS The hedge is the point: a rules-based currency overlay that shifts with the dollar, not the fixed always-on or always-off setting most rivals hand you.wisdomtree.com
• Roughly 1,000 dividend-paying small caps across the industrialized world outside the US and Canada. Broad by design, and it distributes quarterly.
• Running since 2016, so the strategy has worked through several dollar up-and-down stretches rather than one convenient regime.
• Follows a named WisdomTree index rather than a manager's discretion, so the dividend screen and the hedge both operate on published rules.

• FNDC Weights companies by fundamental measures of size rather than share price, so a stock's weight does not climb simply because the market bid it up.
• Roughly 1,600 names spread across developed markets outside the US. Broad enough that no single small-cap story drives the fund.
• Trading since 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that stays inside its lane: developed-market small companies, no drift into emerging markets or larger caps.
• At 0.39%, one of the better-standing implementations in a peer group where the typical fund charges about the same.

Worth knowing

• DDLS At 0.48% it sits above the 0.40% category median, and far above plain-index peers like VSS and SCHC at 0.06%. The hedging machinery is not free.
• Thinly traded next to the category's household names, so execution deserves more attention than with the biggest index funds here.
• The hedge cuts both ways: it damps currency-driven losses and also gives up the tailwind a weakening dollar hands unhedged international funds.wisdomtree.com

• FNDC The fundamental weighting costs extra: plain cap-weighted siblings SCHC and VSS charge 0.06% against 0.39% here.
• A value tilt means results can diverge from standard cap-weighted international small-cap indexes for long stretches, in either direction.
• Cash comes in lumps: distributions are annual or semiannual, not monthly, and the fund trades moderately rather than like the category's busiest names.

Full DDLS profile⁠

Full FNDC profile⁠