DFAC vs PQUS

DFACADimensional US Core Equity 2 ETF

PQUSAPictet AI Enhanced US Equity 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.

PQUS An S&P 500 challenger on a short leash: an AI-driven model makes small tilts around the benchmark instead of big bets, and charges 0.22% a year, roughly a third of what the typical active US equity fund costs.

Stated mandate

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

PQUS The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It is an actively managed ETF using an AI-enhanced, low-tracking-error strategy to invest in U.S. equity securities and seek to outperform the S&P 500 Index.

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.

• PQUS Costs 0.22% a year versus a 0.65% median for active US equity funds, and undercuts most competitors that benchmark themselves to the S&P 500 (TSPA, JPEF, HELO all charge more).
• Low tracking error is the whole design. The model tilts around the S&P 500 rather than wandering off it, so the portfolio keeps broad large-cap US exposure while the active work happens at the margins.
• A cheap active wrapper from a European house building out a US lineup: 1940 Act ETF, US equities only, one stated job, which is long-term capital appreciation against the S&P 500.
• Grades in the top quartile of the active US equity funds we cover, with the low fee doing much of the work.

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.

• PQUS A 2026 launch, so the live record is short. Any read on how the model handles a real drawdown rests on limited history.
• Small and thinly traded next to the index giants, so bid-ask spreads and order size matter more here than with a mega-fund.
• Hugging the index cuts both ways: by design, the gap between this and a plain S&P 500 fund stays narrow in either direction. It also targets appreciation, not income.

Full DFAC profile⁠

Full PQUS profile⁠