DFAC vs DYNF

DFACADimensional US Core Equity 2 ETF

DYNFAiShares U.S. Equity Factor Rotation Active ETF

In short

DFAC Dimensional's whole-market workhorse: roughly 2,600 US stocks in one ticker, run by managers who weigh federal tax consequences before they trade, at a fee closer to index funds than to active ones.

DYNF Most factor funds make you pick a lane: value, momentum, quality. DYNF rotates across five styles instead, letting a factor model decide which one leads, and charges an index-fund-ish 0.26% to do it.

Stated mandate

DFAC The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation while considering federal income-tax implications in its investment decisions.

DYNF The Fund seeks to outperform the U.S. equity market through diversified, tactical exposure to style factors using a factor rotation model.

Why people hold it

• DFAC 0.17% a year for an actively run fund, well under the median fee among active US equity ETFs.
• About 2,600 US stocks under one ticker, so it holds the market broadly rather than a narrow slice of it.
• Federal income-tax implications sit inside the stated objective, not in a footnote, so they factor into what managers buy and sell.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund with a track record running back to 2007 and one of the strongest implementations in its peer group.

• DYNF Five style factors in one ticket (value, quality, momentum, growth, low volatility), reweighted by a rotation model rather than locked to a single tilt.
• 0.26% is well under half the median fee in its active US equity peer group, which is unusual pricing for a strategy with a human-supervised model behind it.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded names in its category, so getting in and out rarely becomes the hard part. Pays quarterly.
• Running since 2019 under one of the biggest ETF shops, and it stands among the strongest overall implementations in the active US equity group we track.

Worth knowing

• DFAC Actively managed, so there's no published index to check it against. Holdings and tilts shift at the managers' discretion.
• Dimensional's own DFAU runs a US core equity mandate for 0.12%, a slightly lighter fee for a similar shelf.
• All stocks, all US: the mandate is capital appreciation from equities, so it takes the market's full swings, and cash arrives quarterly.

• DYNF The yardstick isn't the S&P 500: it's a custom blend of 80% MSCI USA and 20% MSCI USA Minimum Volatility, so a low-vol tilt is baked into the benchmark itself.
• Active by design. The factor mix shifts, the book runs to a couple hundred stocks, and a rotation call can leave it out of step with a plain US market index fund.
• Cheap for active, not the cheapest shelf: systematic peers DFAU (0.12%), AVLC (0.15%), DFAC (0.17%) and FELC (0.18%) all undercut it on fee.

Full DFAC profile⁠

Full DYNF profile⁠