FPA vs GSWO

FPAFFirst Trust Asia Pacific ex-Japan AlphaDEX Fund

GSWOAGoldman Sachs ActiveBeta World Equity ETF

In short

FPA A rare cut of the map: developed Asia-Pacific with Japan left out, run through First Trust's AlphaDEX growth-and-value screen instead of plain market-cap weighting. About 100 names, live since 2011.

GSWO Four factor tilts (value, momentum, quality, low volatility) on developed markets outside the US, for 15 basis points. Goldman's ActiveBeta rules at a price closer to an index fund than an active one.

Stated mandate

FPA The fund seeks before-fee results that generally track the price and yield of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Index. The index uses Nasdaq's AlphaDEX methodology to select stocks from the developed-markets Asia-Pacific universe excluding Japan.

GSWO The fund is an ActiveBeta World Equity ETF designed to track an ActiveBeta Index and provide exposure to value, momentum, quality, and low-volatility characteristics.

Why people hold it

• FPA Narrow mandate most rivals don't offer: developed Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, while the top-scoring funds in its peer group spread across broad international baskets.ftportfolios.com
• AlphaDEX ranks the universe on growth and value factors and holds the stocks that score best, so index membership isn't just a function of company size.ftportfolios.com
• Fully rules-based and running since 2011: roughly 100 stocks, quarterly distributions, no manager discretion over what makes the cut.

• GSWO 0.15% a year against a 0.69% median for its global active-equity peers, and cheaper than fellow top-graded names DFAW (0.24%) and AVGE (0.25%).
• Value, momentum, quality and low volatility come from one published ActiveBeta index methodology, not a manager's discretionary call.gsam.com
• Stands among the strongest implementations in its global equity peer group: a multi-billion-dollar fund in the standard 1940 Act ETF wrapper that pays quarterly.

Worth knowing

• FPA At 0.80% a year it costs well more than double the typical international multifactor ETF. Peers like INTF (0.16%) and GSIE (0.25%) run factor screens for a fraction of that.
• Thinly traded and small by category standards, so spreads can run wider and larger orders can push the price around more than in the group's heavyweights.
• On the things that compound quietly (fee drag, trading friction), it sits in the weaker tier of the international multifactor group rather than near the front.

• GSWO Despite the "World" name, the reference index is MSCI World ex USA, so US stocks sit outside the mandate.
• Launched in 2022, so the live record is short, and factor blends can trail plain cap-weighted benchmarks for long stretches.
• Four factors in one basket can pull against each other; the net tilt is milder than a single-factor fund.

Full FPA profile⁠

Full GSWO profile⁠