FEZ vs GREK

FEZAState Street SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF

GREKCGlobal X MSCI Greece ETF

In short

FEZ Fifty eurozone blue chips, one ticker, running since 2002. FEZ is the long-standing US-listed route into the euro area's biggest companies, and it charges well below the typical index fund in its peer group.

GREK Greece in one ticker. Launched in 2011 with Athens at the center of Europe's debt crisis, GREK is still the only US-listed ETF built to hold Greek stocks directly: roughly 30 names, with banks in the driver's seat.

Stated mandate

FEZ The fund seeks to deliver total returns that generally correspond to the EURO STOXX 50 Index before fees and expenses.

GREK The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MSCI All Greece Select 25/50 Index.

Why people hold it

• FEZ Charges 0.29% a year against a 0.45% median for index-tracking funds in its cohort.
• Trading since 2002 and among the more actively traded names in its group, so the cost of getting in and out tends to be modest on top of the fee.
• Simple job, plainly stated: match the EURO STOXX 50 Index before fees. About 50 holdings, quarterly distributions, no tilts or overlays bolted on.
• A $1B-$5B fund from SPDR with a clean structural record and no red flags on the wrapper, which is rare staying power for a single-region equity product.

• GREK Global X calls it the first and only US-listed ETF that directly targets Greek stocks, so the exposure comes from Athens-listed companies, not a sliver of a broad Europe fund.globalxetfs.com
• The index reaches past the handful of giants: companies classified, headquartered or listed in Greece that do most of their business there, filtered by a minimum trading-liquidity screen.msci.com
• The 25/50 rule stops any one name from swallowing the fund: no single issuer above 25%, and all positions over 5% capped together at under half the index.msci.com
• The 0.56% fee sits right at the median for single-country Europe funds, so a hard-to-reach market costs no novelty premium.

Worth knowing

• FEZ About 50 names in one currency bloc. That concentration puts it at the more volatile end of its peer group, and a few European mega-caps drive a lot of the result.
• It's a regional slice, not a whole-market holding. Broad global trackers such as VT run 0.06% and reach far wider.
• Returns arrive through euro-area shares, so the euro-dollar exchange rate is part of the ride for a US investor. Nothing in the mandate hedges it away.

• GREK About 30 stocks, concentrated in Greek shares and the financials sector, means one country's politics or one sector's stumble moves the whole fund.sec.gov
• The prospectus flags banking industry and currency risk: interest rates, regulation, credit conditions and the euro's path all show up in results.globalxetfs.com
• Cheaper single-country Europe options exist (DAX at 0.20%), and GREK trades moderately rather than heavily, so order size and timing matter more here.

Full FEZ profile⁠

Full GREK profile⁠