FPA vs INTF

FPAFFirst Trust Asia Pacific ex-Japan AlphaDEX Fund

INTFAiShares International Equity Factor 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.

INTF Five factors at once (value, quality, momentum, low volatility, low size) aimed at developed markets outside the US, for 0.16% a year. That is well under half what the typical international multifactor fund charges.

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.

INTF The fund seeks to track an index of international developed-market stocks chosen using value, quality, momentum, low-volatility, and low-size factors.

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.

• INTF At 0.16% a year it undercuts the peer median of 0.38%, and also GSIE (0.25%), RODM (0.29%) and FDEV (0.18%).
• One basket of roughly 500 developed-market stocks does the work of separate value, quality, momentum, low-volatility and small-size sleeves.
• Live since 2015 and now a multi-billion-dollar iShares fund, giving it more history than much of the international multifactor shelf.
• Rates among the strongest implementations in its international multifactor peer group of 29 funds.

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.

• INTF Factor tilts are the whole point, so returns can wander from a plain cap-weighted international index in either direction, sometimes for long stretches.
• Developed markets only. No emerging-market exposure here, and returns move with foreign currencies as well as foreign stocks.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy, so limit orders help. Distributions land once or twice a year, not quarterly.

Full FPA profile⁠

Full INTF profile⁠