FKU vs SPEU

FKUDFirst Trust United Kingdom AlphaDEX Fund

SPEUAState Street SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF

In short

FKU Most UK funds hand you the London giants in order of size. FKU runs a rules-based screen on growth and value metrics instead, then reweights about 80 British stocks by rank. Same market, very different slice. Live since 2012.

SPEU Europe in one line item, priced like a core holding. A 0.07% fee buys the whole STOXX Europe Total Market Index, large caps down to small, in a fund that has been running since 2002.

Stated mandate

FKU The fund seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX United Kingdom Index before fees and expenses.

SPEU The fund seeks to deliver returns generally corresponding to the total return of the STOXX Europe Total Market Index.

Why people hold it

• FKU Not a cap-weighted clone: the AlphaDEX rules rank UK stocks on growth and value metrics, so the market's biggest names don't automatically get the biggest weights.ftportfolios.com
• Holds about 80 British stocks, one of the better-balanced portfolios among single-country Europe funds, so no single name carries the whole thing.
• Running since 2012 against a published Nasdaq index, so the selection rules are public and there's a long live record to inspect. Distributions come quarterly.

• SPEU Charges 0.07% a year, versus a 0.28% median for its peer group. That is core-index pricing on a single-region fund.
• Total-market index, not a blue-chip list: over a thousand western European stocks spanning large, mid and small caps.
• Launched in 2002, so it has run through multiple European market cycles under State Street.
• Mandate is plain and literal: match the total return of one published European index, with no sector or country tilts bolted on.

Worth knowing

• FKU The 0.80% expense ratio sits at the high end for single-country Europe funds (DAX charges 0.20%, EWL 0.50%), and it's the main reason this one lands in the lower tier of the group.
• Thinly traded on a small asset base, so spreads can be wider and sizeable orders push the price around more than in the category's household names.
• One country, one market: UK equity only, so British economic and political news sets the tone. The factor screen also means it can look nothing like the headline UK index.

• SPEU Trading is light next to the giant international funds. Limit orders matter more here, and spreads can widen when volume is thin.
• Europe only. Broad international peers like VEU and IXUS cover Asia and emerging markets too, at 0.04% and 0.07%.
• Holdings trade in euros, pounds and francs, so currency swings against the dollar move your return alongside the stocks.

Full FKU profile⁠

Full SPEU profile⁠