GGRW vs XT

GGRWDGabelli Growth Innovators ETF

XTAiShares Future Exponential Technologies ETF

In short

GGRW A rare bird in innovation land: Gabelli's value instincts aimed at the digital economy, wrapped in a non-transparent ETF that keeps its stock picks off the daily tape. Real choices, where most peers in the theme just track an index.

XT Innovation, spread thin on purpose. XT holds roughly 200 global companies scored by Morningstar analysts for exposure to a handful of exponential tech themes, so no single moonshot carries the fund.

Stated mandate

GGRW The Fund seeks capital appreciation by investing primarily in common stocks relevant to innovation, defined as new technologies, products, or services that change how businesses operate. It targets companies whose earnings-growth prospects are undervalued.

XT XT seeks to track an index of stocks from developed and emerging markets whose companies create or use exponential technologies. The strategy targets technologies with potential economic benefits, including the ability to displace older technologies or create new markets.

Why people hold it

• GGRW Actual stock picking, not index following: the mandate targets innovation companies whose earnings-growth prospects the manager judges undervalued. A value shop's take on growth.gabelli.com
• Built on the ActiveShares model: no daily holdings file, just a verified intraday value (VIIV) published every second, which keeps other traders from shadowing the manager's moves.gabelli.com
• Does what the label says. The portfolio has stayed tight to its stated innovation mandate, with a risk profile on the calmer end of a famously jumpy category.

• XT Cheap for the theme at 0.46% a year, below the typical fee in its disruptive-innovation cohort and under peers like TRFM and FDTX.
• Human fingerprint on the stock list: Morningstar equity analysts score companies on theme exposure instead of sorting by keywords or revenue tags.sec.govcontentstack.io
• Global by construction (developed and emerging markets) and not fenced into the tech sector, so a drugmaker or an industrial can qualify on theme exposure.sec.gov
• Launched in 2015 and now a multi-billion-dollar iShares fund, it stands among the stronger builds in its innovation peer group.ishares.com

Worth knowing

• GGRW The active, hidden-book approach carries an active price tag: 0.90% a year, above the typical innovation fund, while index-based peers like KOMP (0.20%) charge a sliver of that.
• The prospectus names the trade-off of secrecy: shares may trade at wider bid/ask spreads than ETFs that publish holdings daily, especially in volatile markets.gabelli.com
• A small, thinly traded fund, so the cost of getting in and out runs higher than in the category's household names.

• XT The index has been reworked since launch (weighting scheme, theme list), and themes get an annual review, so today's tilt is not fixed forever.morningstar.comsec.gov
• Moderately traded rather than a household name, which can mean wider spreads than the biggest tech ETFs.
• About 200 positions dilutes any single breakout winner, and distributions land only once or twice a year.

Full GGRW profile⁠

Full XT profile⁠