DFAU vs XLSR

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

XLSRCState Street US 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.

XLSR Sector timing, outsourced. State Street's Investment Solutions Group tilts toward and away from the S&P 500's GICS sectors using quant signals plus human judgment, typically rebalancing monthly, all inside one US large-cap ticker.

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.

XLSR The fund seeks capital appreciation through active sector rotation. It uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to adjust sector exposures and typically rebalances monthly.

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.

• XLSR State Street's Investment Solutions Group sets the sector over- and underweights using quantitative signals plus judgment, typically rebalancing monthly. The rotation call, in one ticker.ssga.comssga.com 2
• It dials active risk up and down against the S&P 500 rather than swinging all-in on one sector, so it still behaves like a US large-cap core position.ssga.com
• Running since 2019, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades with reasonable ease and sits in the upper half of a very crowded active US equity field.

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.

• XLSR 0.70% a year is above the typical active US equity fund and multiples of systematic peers like DFAU (0.12%) and FELC (0.18%). Active judgment carries a price tag.
• A couple dozen positions means a handful of sector calls drive the outcome, and results can drift well away from the S&P 500 in either direction.
• The stated goal is capital appreciation, not income. Distributions arrive quarterly and are a byproduct of whatever the underlying sectors happen to pay.

Full DFAU profile⁠

Full XLSR profile⁠