FLKR vs FSZ

FLKRBFranklin FTSE South Korea ETF

FSZCFirst Trust Switzerland AlphaDEX Fund

In short

FLKR Korea in one passive basket for 0.09% a year, a fraction of the 0.50% typical single-country fee. Roughly 160 Korean names tracking a capped FTSE index, run as plain index plumbing rather than a stock-picking bet.

FSZ A Switzerland fund that doesn't just mirror the Swiss market. FSZ runs Swiss stocks through First Trust's AlphaDEX growth-and-value rules and lands on about 40 names, so the screen shapes results as much as the country does.

Stated mandate

FLKR The Fund uses a passive indexing approach to seek returns that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the FTSE South Korea Capped Index.

FSZ The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX® SwitzerlandTM Index. That index selects and weights Swiss securities from the Nasdaq SwitzerlandTM Index using AlphaDEX criteria.

Why people hold it

• FLKR Charges 0.09% a year against a 0.50% median for single-country developed-market ETFs, tying FLAU as the cheapest fee among this cohort's leaders and undercutting EWC and EWU by a wide margin.
• Straight indexing: it seeks returns that closely correspond, before fees, to the FTSE South Korea Capped Index. No manager views, no discretionary tilts.
• The capped index spreads roughly 160 stocks and limits how far any single giant can dominate the basket, which matters in a market this top-heavy.
• A billion-dollar-plus fund that trades actively, and it has been running since 2017, so it is well past the launch-window stage.

• FSZ AlphaDEX selects and weights Swiss stocks on growth and value rules, ending at about 40 names rather than a cap-weighted copy of the market.ftportfolios.com
• Live since 2012, so the screen has a long public record across real market cycles instead of a backtest.
• Plain mandate, no moving parts: one country, one published index, quarterly distributions, standard 1940 Act fund wrapper.

Worth knowing

• FLKR One country, one currency. Korean shares price in won, so the exchange rate is baked into what a US investor sees, separate from how the companies do.
• Roughly 160 stocks in a single export-driven market is a narrow slice next to a global fund. Capping softens concentration, it does not erase it.
• Distributions land annually or semiannually, not monthly, so it is built as an equity holding rather than an income schedule.

• FSZ At 0.80% a year, this sits at the expensive end of single-country developed funds; cohort peers such as FLKR and FLAU charge a small fraction of that.
• A small asset base and thin trading mean spreads can be wide, so order size and timing matter more here than in a mainstream country fund.
• About 40 screened names can drift a long way from the broad Swiss market, in either direction.

Full FLKR profile⁠

Full FSZ profile⁠