FDRR vs SPYD

FDRRBFidelity Dividend ETF for Rising Rates

SPYDAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF

In short

FDRR Most dividend funds ignore interest rates. FDRR is built around them: Fidelity's rate-aware spin on dividend equity, running since 2016 and priced at 0.15% a year, well under the typical dividend-screen fund.

SPYD Most dividend ETFs hunt for companies that keep raising payouts. SPYD skips the courtship and goes straight for the yield: roughly 80 high-dividend names out of the S&P 500, for 0.07% a year.

Stated mandate

FDRR The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Fidelity Dividend Index for Rising Rates.

SPYD The fund seeks to provide returns that generally correspond to the total return of the S&P 500 High Dividend Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• FDRR 0.15% a year against a roughly 0.39% median for dividend-screen ETFs. You get a rules-based twist most index shops don't sell, at a below-median price.
• The mandate is right there in the index name: the Fidelity Dividend Index for Rising Rates. A dividend basket screened with rate moves in mind, not just the fattest yields on the board.
• About 130 stocks, quarterly distributions, and a live track record back to 2016. This is a seasoned product, not a themed launch chasing a headline.
• Lands in the upper half of a crowded dividend-screen field of roughly 50 funds, with high confidence in the underlying data.

• SPYD 0.07% a year against a 0.39% median across dividend-screen peers. It undercuts DGRO's 0.08% and sits a hair above SCHD.
• A pure yield screen, not a growth screen. Where VIG and DGRO buy payout raisers, SPYD takes the high-dividend end of the S&P 500. Different flavor of the same food group.
• Running since 2015, now a multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded names in its cohort, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• Pays quarterly and has tracked the S&P 500 High Dividend Index closely, which is the whole job for a fund like this.

Worth knowing

• FDRR Thinly traded next to the category's giants. Spreads deserve a look before you hit the button, especially on larger orders.
• The core dividend heavyweights undercut it on fee: VIG at 0.04%, SCHD at 0.06%, DGRO at 0.08%. The rate screen is what you're paying the difference for.
• A rate-aware screen builds in sector tilts a plain dividend index won't have, so results can drift from the broad dividend crowd in either direction.

• SPYD About 80 stocks is a narrow slice. Screening on yield pulls the sector mix away from the broad S&P 500, and the ride can be bumpier than the index it comes from.
• A high yield is a ranking, not a promise. The index sorts on payout size, not on how reliably a company has grown or defended that payout.

Full FDRR profile⁠

Full SPYD profile⁠