FMCX vs TACU

FMCXDFM Focus Equity ETF

TACUAT. Rowe Price Active Core U.S. Equity ETF

In short

FMCX A rare active ETF that keeps its cards face down: FMCX runs 25-35 high-conviction US stocks and files holdings quarterly like a mutual fund, with a verified intraday value published every second. First Manhattan's first fund, launched 2022.

TACU T. Rowe Price's quant-plus-fundamental take on core large-cap U.S. stock, benchmarked to the Russell 1000. Gross fee 0.14%, fully waived to zero through January 30, 2027.

Stated mandate

FMCX The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

TACU The fund seeks long-term capital growth through a primarily U.S. equity portfolio. It combines quantitative models with fundamental, bottom-up analysis and seeks excess returns relative to the Russell 1000 Index.

Why people hold it

• FMCX Non-transparent by design: holdings go to the SEC quarterly, not daily, while a verified intraday value ticks every second so market makers can still price shares.sec.gov
• Genuinely concentrated: 25-35 US exchange-listed common stocks of any market cap under normal conditions, picked by First Manhattan's research bench. No closet indexing.sec.gov
• At 0.72%, the fee sits near the category median for US active equity, even with a concentrated, individually researched portfolio behind it.
• Brings a long-established private advisory firm's separate-account research process into an ETF wrapper; FMCX was the firm's debut fund in 2022.businesswire.com

• TACU Fee fully waived: 0.14% gross, zero net through January 30, 2027. That sits below every top-scoring peer in the category, including DFAU at 0.12% with no waiver.troweprice.com
• Quant models feed bottom-up stock picking with tilts to profitability, quality and value, chasing excess return over the Russell 1000 while holding tracking error tight.troweprice.com
• Several hundred large-cap names, so no single position runs the show. One of the stronger profiles in a crowded active U.S. equity field.troweprice.com

Worth knowing

• FMCX Thinly traded. Spreads and premiums or discounts to fair value carry more weight here than at high-volume peers, and larger orders can move the price.
• You see the portfolio quarterly, not every morning. That is the trade for the structure: more weight on the manager's process, less on your own eyeballs.sec.gov
• Cost sits well above the category's cheapest top-graded options, such as DFAU at 0.12% and AVLC at 0.15%, which spread risk across far more names.

• TACU Launched in December 2025, so the live record is short and the risk read rests on limited history.
• Still a small fund that trades lightly, which can mean wider spreads than the category's giants.
• Distributions are annual at most, with no declared income target. This is a growth mandate, not a cash-flow one.

Full FMCX profile⁠

Full TACU profile⁠