DUSG vs SQLV

DUSGAU.S. Small Cap Growth Portfolio: ETF Class Shares

SQLVBRoyce Quant Small-Cap Quality Value ETF

In short

DUSG A Dimensional small-cap growth strategy that finally got a ticker. DUSG is an exchange-traded share class of a portfolio running since 2012, screening small US companies for high profitability and cheaper relative price.

SQLV An active small-cap fund with an algorithm at the wheel. Royce's quant screen ranks US small caps on value, quality and momentum, then spreads the money across roughly 300 names instead of a concentrated stock-picker's short list.

Stated mandate

DUSG The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation.

SQLV The fund seeks long-term capital growth.

Why people hold it

• DUSG Not a startup fund with a launch-day portfolio. The underlying strategy has run since 2012, and the ETF class is a new door into the same book of stocks.businesswire.com
• The screen does two jobs at once: small-cap growth companies, filtered for high profitability and lower relative price, instead of whatever the index says is popular.dimensional.com
• 0.33% a year for a systematically managed factor strategy, sitting right around the middle of the multifactor pack rather than at the premium end.
• Broad and diversified by design, holding a wide sweep of US small caps in a billion-dollar-plus portfolio, not a handful of high-conviction names.dimensional.com

• SQLV Three screens, not one. The rules-based system scores value, quality and momentum together, so a stock needs more than a low price tag to earn a slot.
• Roughly 300 holdings means no single small-cap blowup steers the whole fund, which matters in a corner of the market where individual names swing hard.
• Subadvised by Royce Investment Partners, a shop built around small caps, wrapped in a repeatable quantitative process rather than gut-feel picking. Trading since July 2017.sec.gov
• Portfolio construction is the strongest leg here, and the fund sits in the upper half of its active US small-cap peer group overall.

Worth knowing

• DUSG It trades thinly. Light volume can mean wider gaps between the bid and the ask than you get with the household-name index ETFs.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, not monthly. The stated job here is long-term capital appreciation, not a paycheck.
• Fair pricing, not bargain pricing: broad US growth exposure in the same peer group costs far less (IUSG, 0.04%), minus the small-cap and profitability screens.

• SQLV At 0.60% a year it costs more than the typical fund in its peer group, and well more than systematic rivals like AVUV and AVSC at 0.25%.
• One of the smaller, more thinly traded funds in the category. Light volume tends to mean wider spreads, and small asset bases get reviewed by issuers over time.
• A proprietary screen builds a portfolio that can look very different from a plain small-cap index, so stretches of divergence in either direction come with the design.

Full DUSG profile⁠

Full SQLV profile⁠