FDEV vs FPA

FDEVAFidelity International Multifactor ETF

FPAFFirst Trust Asia Pacific ex-Japan AlphaDEX Fund

In short

FDEV Four factors (value, quality, momentum, low volatility) blended into one developed-markets index fund at 0.18% a year. Fidelity's answer to paying up for a single-factor tilt overseas.

FPA A rare cut of the map: developed Asia-Pacific with Japan left out, run through First Trust's AlphaDEX growth-and-value screen instead of plain market-cap weighting. About 100 names, live since 2011.

Stated mandate

FDEV The fund seeks returns generally corresponding to the Fidelity International Multifactor Index before fees and expenses.

FPA The fund seeks before-fee results that generally track the price and yield of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Index. The index uses Nasdaq's AlphaDEX methodology to select stocks from the developed-markets Asia-Pacific universe excluding Japan.

Why people hold it

• FDEV 0.18% a year, less than half the typical fee in its international multifactor group, and within a rounding error of the cheapest name there (INTF at 0.16%).
• One index does the work of four screens: value, quality, momentum and low volatility applied together, instead of you stacking separate single-factor funds.
• Roughly 220 developed-market stocks outside the US, picked by published index rules rather than a manager's hunches, with cash paid out quarterly.
• Sits in the top quartile of a 29-fund international factor cohort, which is a crowded field full of far pricier attempts at the same job.

• FPA Narrow mandate most rivals don't offer: developed Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, while the top-scoring funds in its peer group spread across broad international baskets.ftportfolios.com
• AlphaDEX ranks the universe on growth and value factors and holds the stocks that score best, so index membership isn't just a function of company size.ftportfolios.com
• Fully rules-based and running since 2011: roughly 100 stocks, quarterly distributions, no manager discretion over what makes the cut.

Worth knowing

• FDEV Thinly traded. Spreads can quietly cost more than the fee, so limit orders matter more here than with the category's household names.
• A 2019 launch still in the mid-size asset range, so there is no decades-long record to lean on the way older international index funds offer.
• Blending four factors means none of them drives the bus. When value or momentum alone runs hot, this owns only a slice of that move.

• FPA At 0.80% a year it costs well more than double the typical international multifactor ETF. Peers like INTF (0.16%) and GSIE (0.25%) run factor screens for a fraction of that.
• Thinly traded and small by category standards, so spreads can run wider and larger orders can push the price around more than in the group's heavyweights.
• On the things that compound quietly (fee drag, trading friction), it sits in the weaker tier of the international multifactor group rather than near the front.

Full FDEV profile⁠

Full FPA profile⁠