DFAU vs SSUS

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

SSUSCStrategy Shares Day Hagan Smart Sector 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.

SSUS Sector rotation with a brake pedal. Day Hagan runs models co-developed with Ned Davis Research across the S&P 500's sectors, tilting toward the strongest ones and, when its risk model turns cautious, shifting up to half the portfolio into cash and Treasuries.

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.

SSUS The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation and preservation of capital.

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.

• SSUS The risk model is the whole point: on a low reward-to-risk reading, up to half of assets can move into cash, Treasuries or money funds, then back to equities when the model says major risks have subsided.sec.gov
• Sector calls, not stock calls. It holds unaffiliated ETFs covering the S&P 500 sectors and overweights or underweights each against the index, with a weak sector cut all the way to zero.sec.gov
• Live since January 2020 on the same published Day Hagan research framework, and it sits in the upper half of a crowded active US equity field.sec.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.

• SSUS At 0.76% with no fee waiver, it sits above the category median. Peers measured against the same S&P 500 benchmark include FELC at 0.18% and PQUS at 0.22%.
• Raising cash cuts both ways: the same mechanism that trims equity exposure can leave the fund underexposed if markets turn back up before the model does.sec.gov
• Not one of the heavily traded names in its category, and it distributes income only once or twice a year rather than monthly.

Full DFAU profile⁠

Full SSUS profile⁠