FMAT vs RSPM

FMATAFidelity MSCI Materials Index ETF

RSPMCInvesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Materials ETF

In short

FMAT The whole US materials sector in one cheap wrapper: chemicals, industrial gases, miners and packagers, roughly 120 names spanning large down to small caps, for 0.08% a year. Fidelity has run it since 2013.

RSPM Materials, cut into even slices. RSPM gives every materials stock in the S&P 500 the same weight, so the sector's smallest name counts as much as its largest, and it has run that way since 2006.

Stated mandate

FMAT The fund seeks to provide returns that generally correspond, before fees and expenses, to the MSCI USA IMI Materials Index.

RSPM The fund tracks an index that equally weights stocks in the materials sector of the S&P 500® Index.

Why people hold it

• FMAT Costs 0.08% a year, tied with XLB for the lowest fee among materials ETFs and a fraction of what the typical fund in the group charges.
• Tracks MSCI's investable-market index, so the basket reaches past the mega caps into mid and small caps: roughly 120 holdings, not a dozen giants.fidelity.com
• Does what the label says. Its returns have hugged its stated MSCI materials index, one of the stronger index implementations in its peer group.
• Live since 2013 with a multi-hundred-million-dollar asset base and quarterly distributions.

• RSPM Equal weighting is the whole point: each S&P 500 materials name gets the same slice, so a few giant chemical and industrial-gas stocks do not set the tone.invesco.com
• The index resets holdings back toward equal weight instead of letting winners compound into outsized positions, which keeps the tilt toward the sector's smaller members intact.invesco.com
• Trading since 2006 on the same rulebook, through multiple commodity cycles. Distributions come quarterly.
• It stays on task: the portfolio tracks its equal-weight materials index closely rather than wandering into adjacent sectors.

Worth knowing

• FMAT One sector, and a cyclical one. Materials profits ride commodity prices and industrial demand, so this can move a long way from the broad market in either direction.
• US-listed companies only, so the big Australian, Canadian and European miners sit outside the basket.fidelity.com
• Moderately traded rather than a volume leader, so spreads can run wider than at the busiest materials funds, especially in fast markets.

• RSPM At 0.40% a year it runs above the typical materials ETF, and cap-weighted rivals such as XLB and VAW charge a fraction of that for the same sector.
• Thinly traded and modest in size, so bid-ask spreads can be wider than on the sector's most heavily traded funds.
• Around two dozen stocks in one cyclical corner of the market, and equal weighting leans harder on the smaller names than a cap-weighted fund does.

Full FMAT profile⁠

Full RSPM profile⁠