FLMX vs UAE

FLMXBFranklin FTSE Mexico ETF

UAECiShares MSCI UAE 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.

UAE A one-ticker slice of the Emirati stock market. It tracks a capped MSCI index of roughly 60 UAE companies, so no single name can swallow the fund, and it has been doing that job since 2014.

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.

UAE The Fund seeks to track the MSCI All UAE Capped Index, an index of UAE equities, using representative sampling rather than attempting to outperform the index.

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.

• UAE One ticker, one market: UAE-listed equities in a standard US fund that tracks the MSCI All UAE Capped Index instead of picking stocks.ishares.com
• The word 'capped' is doing work. The index limits how large any single holding can grow, spreading the bet across roughly 60 names.ishares.com
• At 0.59% it sits right at the middle of the single-country emerging-market pack, the same sticker as iShares' Poland (EPOL) and South Africa (EZA) funds.
• A decade-plus as a plain index tracker: representative sampling of the benchmark, no manager discretion bolted on.

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.

• UAE 0.59% is real money next to broad emerging-market index funds, and cheaper single-country options exist (Franklin's Mexico fund, FLMX, charges 0.19%).
• About 60 stocks from a single country. Results ride on a narrow set of companies and on what happens in the UAE economy.
• Volume is moderate rather than deep and the fund is mid-sized, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than on giant US index funds. Payouts come once or twice a year.

Full FLMX profile⁠

Full UAE profile⁠