DFAU vs EDGU

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

EDGUC3EDGE Dynamic US Equity ETF

In short

DFAU Active management priced like an index fund. Dimensional spreads across roughly 2,400 US stocks, then tilts the weights toward value, profitability and momentum instead of simply mirroring the Russell 3000.

EDGU The ETF version of 3EDGE's institutional tactical model: a compact set of index ETFs that shifts across size, sector and style, aiming to rise with the market and soften declines. That flexibility runs 0.91%, with no fee waiver.

Stated mandate

DFAU Seeks long-term capital appreciation. It uses an integrated research, portfolio-design, management, and trading process to build a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. companies while balancing long-term return drivers, risk, shorter-term considerations, and trading costs.

EDGU The Fund seeks capital appreciation in rising markets while limiting losses during periods of decline.

Why people hold it

• DFAU Charges 0.12% a year, well under the 0.65% median for active US equity funds and the cheapest of the top-graded names in its group (AVLC, DFAC, FELC).
• Holds roughly 2,400 US companies, so no single name steers the fund. Whole-market coverage, not a concentrated bet.
• Active without the stock-picking drama: it leans weights toward value, profitability and momentum, using the Russell 3000 as its reference point rather than a rigid rulebook.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its active US equity peer group.

• EDGU Unusual mandate for a core US equity fund: the prospectus goal is appreciation in rising markets while limiting losses during declines, so exposure can be dialed up or down.sec.gov
• The engine is 3EDGE's proprietary global capital markets model, a rules-and-algorithms system the firm already runs for institutions and advisor model portfolios.3edgeam.com
• Built from index ETFs rather than hand-picked stocks, so the underlying exposures stay plain vanilla; the active call is which slices of size, sector and style to own.3edgeetfs.comsec.gov

Worth knowing

• DFAU Those tilts cut both ways: results can drift from a plain Russell 3000 fund for long stretches, in either direction.
• No published index behind it. The trade-off for flexibility is that you're buying Dimensional's process, not a public set of rules you can check line by line.
• Distributions land quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than income.

• EDGU Cost is the trade-off: 0.91% all in (0.70% management plus 0.20% from the ETFs it holds), no waiver, above the category norm and versus 0.12% at DFAU and 0.15% at AVLC.sec.gov
• The loss-limiting aim is an objective, not a buffer. Nothing in the structure floors the downside; it rests on the model's allocation calls.sec.gov
• Young and lightly traded: shares date to 2024, and volume runs below the category's giants, so spreads matter more at the point of trade.

Full DFAU profile⁠

Full EDGU profile⁠