DFAU vs HGRO

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

HGROCHedgeye Quality Growth 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.

HGRO Hedgeye built its name selling macro research to traders. HGRO is that research in a ticker: an active, concentrated book of US large- and mid-cap growth names picked off the firm's growth-and-inflation regime maps.

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.

HGRO The fund aims to achieve long-term growth of capital and income.

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.

• HGRO The macro call is the product: holdings come off a framework that maps growth and inflation data into themes, then screens companies on fundamentals.stockanalysis.com
• Genuinely active. It runs a non-diversified book of US-listed stocks and REITs, with at least 80% of net assets in US-listed equities, rather than hugging a broad index.yahoo.com
• Moderately traded despite a 2025 launch, so getting a position on or off is not a scavenger hunt.

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.

• HGRO 0.70% a year is full active pricing, above the typical active US equity ETF and many times core rivals like DFAU (0.12%) and FELC (0.18%).
• Launched June 2025, so the record is short and the process has not been tested across a full market cycle.
• Non-diversified means fewer, larger positions, and up to 20% of total assets can sit in foreign companies, including depositary receipts.yahoo.com

Full DFAU profile⁠

Full HGRO profile⁠