DFAU vs FCTE

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

FCTECSMI 3Fourteen Full-Cycle Trend 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.

FCTE Most active large-cap funds hold hundreds of names. FCTE holds about 20, pulled from the S&P 500 by a quality screen and then trend and momentum rules that get rerun every month. A concentrated, high-turnover swing at the index it measures itself against.

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.

FCTE The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by identifying and holding stocks that the Adviser believes can outperform the S&P 500.

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.

• FCTE Roughly 20 equally weighted S&P 500 stocks, re-screened monthly on quality, trend and momentum. Genuine concentration, not a core index fund wearing an active label.3fourteensmi.comsec.gov
• The wrapper does real work: the issuer notes this is typically a high-turnover strategy, and the ETF structure can limit the capital gains that holding those 20 stocks directly would kick off.3fourteensmi.com
• The mandate is plain-spoken. US stocks the adviser believes can beat the S&P 500, drawn from the S&P 500, benchmarked against it. No ambiguity about what you are buying.3fourteensmi.com
• Run jointly by 3Fourteen Research and SMI Advisory Services, whose co-portfolio manager has helped steer the SMI fund family since it launched in 2005.3fourteensmi.com

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.

• FCTE At 0.85% a year it sits above the typical active US equity fund's 0.65%, and far above the cheapest systematic peers in the group (DFAU at 0.12%, DYNF at 0.26%).
• Twenty names means one stock can swing the fund, and the monthly re-screen means today's lineup may not be next quarter's. Volatility comes with the concentration.3fourteensmi.com
• It opened in July 2024, so a strategy named for the full cycle has not yet lived through one, and shares trade thinly. Limit orders are your friend.

Full DFAU profile⁠

Full FCTE profile⁠