FSGS vs SCHG: Grades, Fees and Holdings Compared

First Trust SMID Growth Strength ETF

FSGSDNasdaq

Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF

SCHGANYSE Arca

Overlap

0.8%by weight

Expense ratio

SCHG −0.56pt a year

FSGS0.60%SCHG0.04%

Avg volume · 30D

SCHG 6804.8×the volume

FSGS1.12KSCHG7.59M

5Y return · a year

SCHG +7.6pt

FSGS+4.2%SCHG+11.8%

FSGS vs SCHG Performance

Oct 29, 2021 – Oct 30, 2026

+22.7%FSGS+74.3%SCHG

Expense ratio: FSGS 0.60%; SCHG 0.04%, better
Fund size: FSGS $30M; SCHG $61.7B
1Y total return: FSGS +8.9%, better; SCHG +3.3%
Yield (12M): FSGS 0.03%; SCHG 0.40%, better
Holdings: FSGS 101; SCHG 187
Avg volume (30D): FSGS 1.12K sh; SCHG 7.59M sh, better
NAV per share: FSGS $33.07; SCHG $34.31
52W range

ETF.net Grade

Pillar letters and Scores for FSGS, SCHG, with each pillar’s weight
Pillar	FSGS	SCHG
Cost30% weight	F6	A96Higher
Mission25% weight	C50	A92Higher
Risk15% weight	C54Higher	C41
Tradability15% weight	D33	A87Higher
Holdings10% weight	A75Higher	D36
Durability5% weight	D28	A75Higher

Rank among US Growth Index funds

How we build Categories ›

Same Category. FSGS and SCHG are both graded against the same 35 US Growth Index funds, so their Grades compare head to head.

US Growth Index⁠

Category · 35 funds

See all 35 ›

SCHG ranks 2nd and FSGS 34th of 35 funds in the US Growth Index Category.

Rank 1ASPYGState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETFScore 84
Rank 2AILCGiShares Morningstar Growth ETFScore 78
Rank 2AIMCGiShares Morningstar Mid-Cap Growth ETFScore 78
Rank 2ASCHGSchwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETFScore 78
Rank 5AVUGVanguard Morningstar Growth ETFScore 77
Rank 32CRKSGRuk Strategic Growth ETFScore 40
Rank 34DFSGSFirst Trust SMID Growth Strength ETFScore 36
Rank 35DBULPacer US Cash Cows Growth ETFScore 29

Our read on each fund

ETF.net Research

FSGSDFirst Trust SMID Growth Strength ETF

SCHGASchwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF

In short

FSGS Growth only after the balance sheet passes inspection: FSGS screens small and mid caps for cash, low debt and double-digit return on equity, then ranks survivors on three-year revenue and cash flow growth. About 100 names, equally weighted.

SCHG Schwab's growth workhorse: roughly 200 large-cap U.S. growth names for four basis points, one of the cheapest tickets in a crowded category. Running since 2009 and among the most heavily traded growth funds around.

Stated mandate

FSGS The Fund seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield of The SMID Growth Strength Index before fees and expenses.

SCHG SCHG seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index. It generally invests in stocks included in that index, which represents large-cap U.S. growth equities.

Why people hold it

FSGS Quality gate comes first: at least $100 million in cash, long-term debt under 30% of market cap, positive equity, positive revenue and cash flow, and ROE above 10%.ftportfolios.com
Growth ranking is backward-looking and concrete: three-year revenue growth and three-year cash flow growth, weighted equally. No analyst forecasts in the recipe.ftportfolios.com
Equal weighting across about 100 stocks, reset quarterly, so one hot name cannot quietly become the fund. A different shape from cap-weighted growth indexes.ftportfolios.com
Small and mid caps put it in a different lane from the megacap-heavy growth funds that lead this category, including SPYG, SCHG and VUG.nasdaq.com

SCHG 0.04% a year against a growth-category median of 0.18%. Costs sit near the floor of the group.
Hews closely to the Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index, one of the tighter index implementations in its peer group.
Live since 2009, a multi-billion-dollar fund, and one of the busier tickers in the growth aisle, so entering and exiting is usually cheap and easy.
The benchmark is carved out of a total-market growth index, not S&P 500 membership, so a stock does not need an index committee's nod to qualify.

Worth knowing

FSGS At 0.60% with no waiver, it sits above the category median, and well above cap-weighted options like VUG at 0.03% and mid-cap growth fund IMCG at 0.06%.
The ticker dates to 2017, but it tracked a different index until late 2024, so the live record for this strategy is short.sec.gov
One of the smaller, more lightly traded funds in the growth group, so spreads can run wider than in the category's giants.

SCHG Growth-only by design. Value and dividend-heavy corners of the market sit outside the mandate, so the ride differs from a total-market fund.
Large-cap U.S. only, roughly 200 stocks. No mid-caps, no small-caps, nothing overseas.
VUG charges a hair less for a similar broad-growth mandate. A tiny gap, but it is there. Distributions here arrive quarterly.

Full FSGS profile⁠

Full SCHG profile⁠

FSGS vs SCHG Holdings

How FSGS and SCHG differ

Overlap by weight

0.8%

Shared holdings make up 19.5% of FSGS and 0.8% of SCHG.

Level by level

Holdings20 in both0.8%
Sector11 Sectors56.8%
Asset classEquity100%
Countryby domicile99.8%

Sector

Sector weights in FSGS and SCHG, widest gap first
Sector	More in FSGSMore in SCHG	FSGS	SCHG
Technology	SCHG +29.2 points	25.1%	54.3%
Health Care	FSGS +15.8 points	22.4%	6.6%
Financials	FSGS +14.3 points	19.3%	5.0%
Communication	SCHG +12.2 points	1.5%	13.7%
Industrials	FSGS +5.1 points	12.1%	7.0%
Consumer Staples	FSGS +2.8 points	3.9%	1.1%
Energy	FSGS +2.6 points	3.3%	0.7%
Real Estate	FSGS +2.6 points	2.9%	0.3%
Materials	SCHG +0.9 points	0.0%	0.9%
Consumer Discretionary	SCHG +0.5 points	9.6%	10.1%
Utilities	SCHG +0.4 points	0.0%	0.4%

Country, concentration and asset class

Country by domicile

Country weights in FSGS and SCHG, widest gap first
Country	More in FSGSMore in SCHG	FSGS	SCHG
United States	FSGS +0.2 points	100.0%	99.8%
China	SCHG +0.2 points	0.0%	0.2%

Concentration

Weight in the 10 largest Holdings

FSGS11.2%
SCHG59.9%

Securities held

FSGS100
SCHG187

Asset class

FSGS: Equity
SCHG: Equity

Holdings

Only in FSGS80
In both20
Only in SCHG167

Only in FSGS

80 securities, 80.4% of FSGS by weight

AvePoint, Inc.1.17%
Arlo Technologies, Inc.1.17%
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated1.15%
Equifax Inc.1.12%
Evercore Inc.1.12%
Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc.1.10%
United Therapeutics Corporation1.10%
Flowserve Corporation1.10%
Manhattan Associates, Inc.1.10%
Exelixis, Inc.1.09%
FIGS, Inc. (Class A)1.09%
HealthEquity, Inc.1.09%
Oshkosh Corporation1.08%
Tidewater Inc.1.08%
PJT Partners Inc. (Class A)1.07%
Morningstar, Inc.1.07%
Boot Barn Holdings, Inc.1.06%
Upwork Inc.1.06%
Q2 Holdings, Inc.1.06%
Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc.1.05%
Moelis & Company (Class A)1.05%
Freshworks Inc. (Class A)1.05%
UiPath, Inc. (Class A)1.05%
QuinStreet, Inc.1.04%
Incyte Corporation1.04%
Encompass Health Corporation1.04%
Permian Resources Corp.1.04%
Cincinnati Financial Corporation1.04%
Agilysys, Inc.1.03%
Arch Capital Group Ltd.1.03%
ExlService Holdings, Inc.1.03%
Clear Secure, Inc. (Class A)1.03%
Radian Group Inc.1.02%
Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (Class A)1.02%
Brinker International, Inc.1.02%
The New York Times Company (Class A)1.01%
The Ensign Group, Inc.1.01%
Paylocity Holding Corporation1.01%
UMB Financial Corporation1.01%
Hamilton Lane Incorporated (Class A)1.00%
The St. Joe Company1.00%
Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc.1.00%
Innoviva, Inc.1.00%
Mechanics Bancorp (Class A)1.00%
Ralph Lauren Corporation1.00%
GigaCloud Technology Inc (Class A)1.00%
Globus Medical, Inc. (Class A)1.00%
Liquidity Services, Inc.1.00%
XPO, Inc.0.99%
United Fire Group, Inc.0.99%

Only in SCHG

167 securities, 99.2% of SCHG by weight

NVIDIA12.10%
Apple11.92%
Microsoft9.21%
Amazon Com Inc5.60%
Broadcom Inc4.20%
Alphabet Class A3.90%
Meta Platforms Class A3.74%
Alphabet Class C3.14%
Tesla Inc3.09%
Eli Lilly2.98%
Micron Technology2.86%
Advanced Micro Devices2.51%
Visa Class A1.90%
Mastercard Class A1.40%
Palantir Technologies Class A1.23%
Costco Wholesale Corp1.20%
UnitedHealth Group1.00%
Applied Material Inc0.91%
Ge Aerospace0.88%
Palo Alto Networks0.84%
Caterpillar Inc0.81%
Crowdstrike Holdings Class A0.72%
Thermo Fisher Scientific0.71%
Ge Vernova0.64%
Linde PLC0.63%
Kla0.59%
Sandisk0.53%
Arista Networks0.52%
Walt Disney0.52%
BlackRock0.46%
Deere0.45%
Intuitive Surgical0.43%
Seagate Technology Holdings PLC0.43%
Eaton PLC0.41%
Western Digital Corp0.39%
S&P Global0.38%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals0.37%
Boeing0.37%
Uber Technologies0.36%
Parker-Hannifin0.32%
Snowflake0.31%
Mckesson Corp0.31%
Servicenow0.31%
Booking Holdings0.31%
Phillips0.30%
Equinix Reit0.28%
Cloudflare Class A0.27%
Quanta Services Inc0.26%
Trane Technologies PLC0.26%
Cadence Design Systems0.26%

Weight gaps

All 20 Holdings in both funds, largest gap first.

Holding weights in FSGS and SCHG, widest gap first
Holding	More in FSGSMore in SCHG	FSGS	SCHG
DocuSign, Inc.DOCU	FSGS +1.04 points	1.08%	0.04%
Texas Roadhouse, Inc.TXRH	FSGS +1.03 points	1.06%	0.03%
Five Below, Inc.FIVE	FSGS +1.02 points	1.06%	0.04%
Tradeweb Markets Inc. (Class A)TW	FSGS +1.02 points	1.06%	0.04%
Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.NBIX	FSGS +1.01 points	1.05%	0.04%
Elastic N.V.ESTC	FSGS +1.01 points	1.04%	0.03%
Insulet CorporationPODD	FSGS +1.01 points	1.04%	0.03%
Paycom Software, Inc.PAYC	FSGS +1.00 points	1.03%	0.03%
Celsius Holdings, Inc.CELH	FSGS +1.00 points	1.01%	0.01%
Medpace Holdings, Inc.MEDP	FSGS +0.99 points	1.03%	0.04%
PTC Inc.PTC	FSGS +0.93 points	0.99%	0.06%
MasTec, Inc.MTZ	FSGS +0.92 points	0.95%	0.03%
Curtiss-Wright CorporationCW	FSGS +0.88 points	0.93%	0.05%
DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc.DOCN	FSGS +0.86 points	0.89%	0.03%
Woodward, Inc.WWD	FSGS +0.86 points	0.91%	0.05%
ResMed Inc.RMD	FSGS +0.84 points	0.94%	0.10%
EMCOR Group, Inc.EME	FSGS +0.84 points	0.92%	0.08%
MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc.MTSI	FSGS +0.83 points	0.88%	0.05%
IES Holdings, Inc.IESC	FSGS +0.79 points	0.80%	0.01%
Sterling Infrastructure, Inc.STRL	FSGS +0.77 points	0.80%	0.03%

All 100 FSGS holdings⁠All 189 SCHG holdings⁠

How we measure overlap

Each holding counts at its smaller weight in the two funds, summed over the full Holdings. Sector, country and asset class use the same rule on each fund’s split. Cash, FX and derivative lines stay out of the counts. Two bond funds get no overlap figure.

FSGS vs SCHG Cost

Overpaying FSGS vs SCHG

$10,968

On $10,000 over 30 years. 7% growth a year before fees, expense ratio only.

FSGS 0.60%
$11,817
SCHG 0.04%
$849

Amount$10,000

Years30 years

Cost over time

FSGS 0.60%
SCHG 0.04%
Overpaying

Year by year

Year	FSGS	SCHG	Overpaying
10	$1,076	$73	$1,003
20	$4,116	$288	$3,828
30	$11,817	$849	$10,968

Expense ratio

0.60%FSGS
0.04%SCHG, cheaper

SCHG0.04%FSGS0.60%

0.03%0.70%

Middle half of US Growth Index funds
Median 0.18%

SCHG 2nd cheapest of 35 funds

FSGS 32nd cheapest of 35 funds

FSGS vs SCHG Dividends

Last 12 months to Oct 30, 2026

Yield (12M): FSGS 0.03%; SCHG 0.40%, better
Payout (12M): FSGS $0.01; SCHG $0.14
Last payment: FSGS $0.01; SCHG $0.04
Ex-dividend: FSGS Jun 25, 2026; SCHG Sep 23, 2026
Paid on: FSGS Jun 30, 2026; SCHG Sep 28, 2026
Frequency: FSGS Irregular; SCHG Quarterly

Distribution history

Per share, 2017 to 2026, same scale for both

FSGSIrregular · 30 paymentsAll FSGS payments⁠

SCHGQuarterly · 42 paymentsAll SCHG payments⁠

FSGS vs SCHG Risk

Fall from peak · 5 years

FSGS
SCHG

Risk facts

VolatilityStd dev, 3 years: FSGS 16.3%, betterSCHG 16.5%
Return per unit of riskSharpe ratio, 3 years: FSGS 0.52SCHG 1.16, better
Worst fallMax drawdown, 5 years: FSGS −24.1%, betterSCHG −34.6%
Market sensitivityBeta, 5 years: FSGS 0.99SCHG 1.20; Market = 1

FSGS and SCHG in the news

All news⁠

Best ETFs
The best growth ETF is the cheap one on the index you want
Updated Nov 2, 2026SCHG
Best ETFs
The cheap large-cap growth pick is the S&P 500 list
Updated Oct 2, 2026SCHG

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