FPX vs SPAQ

FPXAFirst Trust US Equity Opportunities ETF

SPAQDHorizon Kinetics SPAC Active ETF

In short

FPX The IPO trade with a rulebook. Since 2006, FPX has tracked an index of roughly 100 recently public US companies, new listings and spin-offs alike, at a lower fee than the typical fund in its niche.

SPAQ Most equity funds measure themselves against the stock market. This one sets its bar at a bank CD: an actively run basket of SPACs and their warrants, chasing realized gains above short-term interest rates.

Stated mandate

FPX The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the IPOX®-100 U.S. Index before fees and expenses. It normally invests at least 90% of net assets in securities comprising that Index.

SPAQ The Fund seeks realized capital gains above short-term interest rates on a risk-adjusted basis. It primarily pursues this objective by investing in SPACs that the sub-adviser expects to generate gains above comparable bank certificate-of-deposit income.

Why people hold it

• FPX At 0.57%, it undercuts the median fee in its IPO and spin-off peer group, including CSD (0.67%) and FPXI (0.70%).
• Launched in 2006 and now at billion-dollar-plus scale, it is a long-running vehicle in a category full of newer entrants.
• Rules over hunches: at least 90% of net assets sit in the IPOX-100 U.S. Index, about 100 names, so the basket is defined by methodology rather than a manager's favorites.
• Rates as one of the stronger implementations in its small group of IPO and spin-off funds, and pays distributions quarterly.

• SPAQ The mandate is unusually literal: realized capital gains above short-term rates, measured against what a comparable bank certificate of deposit would pay.
• Goes where index products rarely do: roughly 60 positions in SPACs plus the warrants and rights attached to them, chosen by a sub-adviser rather than a screen.
• Its peer group is mostly IPO and spin-off index funds (FPX, CSD, IPO). This is one of the few US ETFs pointed squarely at SPACs, and it has run since 2023.

Worth knowing

• FPX The whole portfolio is built from recent listings and spin-offs, a slice of the market known for sharp moves in both directions.
• Cheap for the niche, not cheap in absolute terms: 0.57% is a thematic-fund price tag, not a core-index one.
• US-only by design, and concentrated at about 100 stocks. Overseas new listings fall outside the mandate and live in the sibling fund FPXI.

• SPAQ Active management shows up in the fee: 0.85% a year versus a 0.70% peer median, and SPAC-focused rival SPCK charges no management fee at all.
• A small fund that trades thinly, so spreads can run wider than in the big index names in its category and order size matters more.
• Cash comes back once or twice a year at most, and with no index underneath, outcomes ride on the sub-adviser's deal-by-deal judgment.

Full FPX profile⁠

Full SPAQ profile⁠