EWT vs FLGB

EWTCiShares MSCI Taiwan ETF

FLGBAFranklin FTSE United Kingdom ETF

In short

EWT Running since 2000, EWT is the veteran, heavily traded way to own Taiwan in one ticker: roughly 80 of the island's listed companies, tracking MSCI's capped Taiwan index.

FLGB Britain in one ticker for nine basis points. Franklin's UK tracker follows a capped FTSE index of roughly 110 British companies and charges a small fraction of what the typical index fund in its peer group costs.

Stated mandate

EWT The fund seeks to track an index composed of Taiwanese equities.

FLGB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index.

Why people hold it

• EWT Trading since 2000 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands very actively, so the market in it is deep on both sides.
• One ticker covers roughly 80 Taiwanese companies, and the index is the capped 25/50 version, which limits how much weight the largest holdings can carry.
• Plain plumbing: a straight index fund from iShares with no leverage, no derivatives overlay, no income gimmicks, and no structural red flags in our review.

• FLGB 0.09% a year, a fraction of the median fee across the index trackers we grade. Cheap is the whole pitch for single-country beta, and this one delivers it.
• One trade, roughly 110 UK companies. A passive, rules-based mandate tied to the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index, running since its 2017 launch.
• Stands in the top quartile of its plain-index-wrapper peer group, and the mandate data behind that read is high confidence.

Worth knowing

• EWT At 0.59% a year it sits above the single-country median of 0.50%, and the cheapest funds in that group, such as FLKR and FLAU, charge 0.09%.
• One country, about 80 stocks: moves can run hotter than a globally diversified fund, and everything rides on a single economy.
• Distributions come once or twice a year, not quarterly, so the income arrives in lumps.

• FLGB Single-country by design: UK listings only, so there is no cushion from other markets inside the fund. Broad global trackers like VT spread that bet differently.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so limit orders are the sane way in and out.
• Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly. Income lands in lumps.

Full EWT profile⁠

Full FLGB profile⁠