DFAU vs NOEQ

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

NOEQANorthern Trust 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.

NOEQ Active management at index-fund pricing: 0.12% a year for a broad slate of mid- and large-cap US stocks, run by Northern Trust's FlexShares. It launched in 2026, so the story here is the fee, not the track record.

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.

NOEQ The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities of U.S. companies. It is actively managed and generally focuses on mid- and large-capitalization companies.

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.

• NOEQ 0.12% a year is index-fund pricing on an actively run portfolio, matching the lowest fee among the strongest funds in its peer group (DFAU) and sitting far below the typical active US equity ETF.
• About 400 mid- and large-cap US names, so the manager's calls play out inside a diversified core rather than a handful of concentrated bets.
• Stands in the upper tier of a crowded field of hundreds of active US equity ETFs, with the low fee and a market-like risk profile doing most of the work.

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.

• NOEQ Trading is thin, so spreads can run wider than in mega-cap index funds. Order size and timing matter more here than in the household-name giants.
• Launched in 2026, so the live record is short. And because the mandate is active, there is no published index to measure the portfolio against.
• Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly, so it is not built as an income drip.

Full DFAU profile⁠

Full NOEQ profile⁠