DFAU vs SECT

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

SECTCMain Sector Rotation 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.

SECT Rather than picking stocks, SECT rents whole sectors through sector ETFs, tilting toward the ones its managers judge undervalued. The stated aim: outperform the S&P 500 in rising markets while limiting losses when markets decline.

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.

SECT The Fund seeks to outperform the S&P 500 during rising markets while limiting losses when markets 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.

• SECT One of the longer-running active sector-rotation ETFs, trading since 2017, with a record that spans the 2020 crash and the 2022 bear market.sec.gov
• 0.69% net of a waiver through March 31, 2027 (0.73% gross), and that cap covers the underlying sector ETFs' fees too, so fund-of-funds costs don't quietly stack on top.sec.gov
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades at moderate volume, so entering and exiting is rarely the hard part for retail-size orders. Pays quarterly.

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.

• SECT The fee sits near the typical active US equity fund, but well above index-style peers in the group such as DFAU (0.12%) and AVLC (0.15%).
• Results ride on a short list of sector calls, so the portfolio can look very different from the S&P 500 in either direction.sec.gov
• The prospectus notes higher portfolio turnover can mean higher transaction costs and bigger tax bills for shares held in a taxable account.sec.gov

Full DFAU profile⁠

Full SECT profile⁠