FLMX vs QAT

FLMXAFranklin FTSE Mexico ETF

QATDiShares MSCI Qatar ETF

In short

FLMX Mexico exposure at a discount. Franklin's tracker charges 0.19%, a fraction of what single-country emerging-market funds usually cost, and holds a compact basket of the country's largest listed companies.

QAT One ticker, one country. QAT tracks the MSCI All Qatar Capped Index with a tight basket of Qatari stocks, giving US investors direct access to a small Gulf market that barely registers inside a broad emerging markets fund.

Stated mandate

FLMX The Fund seeks to track the performance of the FTSE Mexico Capped Index before fees and expenses through an indexing strategy, investing at least 80% of assets in index components or related exposure.

QAT The fund seeks to track an index composed of Qatar equities, providing targeted exposure to companies in Qatar and a way to express a single-country view.

Why people hold it

• FLMX At 0.19%, one of the cheapest wrappers for Mexican equities: well under the roughly 0.59% median in its single-country EM cohort, and under EWW's 0.50%.
• Plain, rules-based mandate: it tracks the FTSE Mexico Capped Index, keeping at least 80% of assets in index components or related exposure. No manager guesswork.
• The index is a capped one, which limits how much of the portfolio any single Mexican mega-cap can occupy.
• Live since 2017 and, on our review, one of the stronger implementations among single-country emerging-market funds.

• QAT Direct Qatar exposure in a plain US-listed wrapper: no local brokerage, no currency account, just an index fund tracking the MSCI All Qatar Capped Index.ishares.com
• Launched in 2014 and run by iShares, so this is a long-running fund with a decade-plus of live history rather than a recent launch chasing a theme.
• About 30 holdings means you can actually read the portfolio and see what you own, instead of Qatar arriving as an unlabeled sliver of a broad emerging markets index.

Worth knowing

• FLMX Thinly traded. Spreads can run wider than at the category's busiest funds, which adds to the real cost of getting in and out beyond the headline fee.
• One country, roughly 40 stocks. Concentration is the point, but it means Mexican policy, oil and peso moves all land straight in a dollar-based return.
• Income arrives quarterly, not monthly.

• QAT The 0.60% annual fee is typical for single-country emerging markets funds, but cheaper options exist in that group: Franklin's FLMX charges a fraction as much for its country exposure.
• Roughly 30 stocks in one small market is concentration by design. Individual names and sector moves drive results, and there is no diversification cushion underneath.
• It lands in the lower reaches of our single-country emerging markets group, weighed down mainly by cost and by how closely it delivers on its stated index mandate. Payouts come once or twice a year, not quarterly.

Full FLMX profile⁠

Full QAT profile⁠