FDEV vs ISCF

FDEVAFidelity International Multifactor ETF

ISCFBiShares International Small-Cap Equity Factor ETF

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.

ISCF Factor investing usually stops at big multinationals. ISCF runs value, quality, momentum and low volatility on developed-market small caps outside the US, roughly 1,200 of them, for 0.24% a year.

Stated mandate

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

ISCF The Fund seeks to follow an index of developed-market small-cap stocks outside the United States, selected and weighted to provide favorable exposure to specified style factors within defined constraints.

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.

• ISCF Four factors in one wrapper: value, quality, momentum and low volatility, applied inside constraints meant to keep country and sector tilts from running away.ishares.com
• 0.24% a year undercuts the typical international multifactor fund, and it buys the small-cap end that most factor ETFs skip entirely.
• Roughly 1,200 stocks across developed markets outside the US, so no single name or country runs the show.
• Running since 2015, and the portfolio it holds lines up closely with the mandate it advertises: one of the tighter implementations in its peer group.

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.

• ISCF Small caps abroad move harder than large-cap international funds, and foreign-currency swings feed into what you see in dollars.
• It trades moderately, not like the large-cap factor names (INTF, GSIE), so bid-ask spreads can matter more than the headline fee.
• Distributions land once or twice a year rather than quarterly, so cash arrives lumpy.

Full FDEV profile⁠

Full ISCF profile⁠