FPXI vs IPOS

FPXICFirst Trust International Equity Opportunities ETF

IPOSDRenaissance International IPO ETF

In short

FPXI The IPO trade, minus America. FPXI tracks the IPOX International Index, so recently listed companies from Europe and Asia arrive in one ticker instead of a brokerage scavenger hunt across foreign exchanges.

IPOS The overseas half of the IPO trade. IPOS tracks a rules-based index of the largest, most liquid newly public companies listed outside the US, roughly 60 names, wrapped in one ticker.

Stated mandate

FPXI The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the IPOX® International Index.

IPOS The Fund seeks to provide investors with the largest, most liquid internationally listed newly public company stocks in one security. It uses passive indexing to approximate the performance of the Renaissance International IPO Index.

Why people hold it

• FPXI The overseas seat in a corner of the market that is mostly US-focused: its peer shelf is dominated by American IPO and spin-off funds, while this one buys newly public names listed abroad.
• Rules-based, not a stock-picking hunch. An index decides which new listings go in and when they age out, so you are not tracking foreign IPO calendars yourself.
• Launched in 2014, so it has run through several very different IPO cycles, and it carries enough assets and daily volume to be a workable trade rather than a ghost ticker.
• Sits in the upper half of the IPO and spin-off group overall, helped by how smoothly it trades for a fund holding non-US stocks. Pays quarterly.

• IPOS One ticker for non-US new listings. The fund targets the largest, most liquid internationally listed newly public stocks rather than making you chase individual offerings across foreign exchanges.renaissancecapital.com
• Rules, not hunches. It passively tracks the Renaissance International IPO Index, so entries and exits follow published methodology instead of a manager's read on a hot deal.renaissancecapital.com
• A veteran in a thin category. Launched in 2014, it has run through multiple IPO booms and freezes, and it pays distributions on a quarterly schedule.
• Reach spans developed and emerging markets, so the basket picks up new listings from Europe and Asia that broad international index funds tend to hold only in small weights.renaissancecapital.com

Worth knowing

• FPXI 0.70% a year is the median price in this niche, but it runs above the fund's US-focused sibling FPX at 0.57%, and it is a thematic-fund fee, not an index-fund fee.
• About 60 stocks, all recently public. Individual names carry real weight, and freshly listed companies tend to move harder in both directions than seasoned large caps.
• Independent data on how closely the fund has hugged the IPOX International Index is thin, so its index fidelity is harder to verify than for mainstream benchmarks.

• IPOS Cost sits at the high end: 0.80% a year, above the 0.70% cohort median and above direct rival FPXI at 0.70%.
• Small and thinly traded. Bid-ask spreads carry more weight here than with large, heavily traded index funds, and size limits how easily big orders move.
• A focused basket of about 60 recent listings, all of them companies without long public track records. On our measures it lands in the back of its small IPO and spin-off peer group.

Full FPXI profile⁠

Full IPOS profile⁠