IETC vs WELD

IETCAiShares U.S. Tech Independence Focused ETF

WELDDTema U.S. Manufacturing & Reshoring ETF

In short

IETC Most reshoring funds buy factories. This one buys the tech behind them: an active BlackRock portfolio that uses geolocation data to favor U.S. tech firms with more capability, revenue and production at home. Running since 2018.

WELD Most reshoring funds buy the whole factory floor. WELD picks roughly two dozen U.S. industrial names by hand, with a valuation screen built into the mandate, and it was doing this in 2023 before the index giants turned up.

Stated mandate

IETC The fund seeks long-term growth through actively managed exposure to U.S. technology companies with resilient value chains, domestic capabilities, and a greater proportion of U.S. technological capabilities, revenues, and production.

WELD The Fund seeks long-term growth.

Why people hold it

• IETC At 0.18%, it costs a fraction of the typical fund in this theme, where the median sits at 0.75%. That is unusual pricing for anything actively managed.
• Actively managed, not index-tracking. BlackRock uses geolocation data and proprietary models to identify U.S. tech companies with a greater share of capabilities, revenue and production onshore.ishares.com
• The definition of "tech" here is not the standard sector box. A proprietary classification system decides who counts, which can reach names a traditional sector screen files elsewhere.ishares.com
• One of the stronger implementations in its peer group, and it has been trading since 2018, before reshoring became a crowded fund-marketing category.

• WELD Actively run rather than indexed: around 26 U.S. industrial names chosen by an industrials portfolio manager, not a rules-based basket of a hundred-plus tickers.temaetfs.com
• Valuation is written into the strategy: it targets reshoring companies priced attractively against their own fundamentals and growth, a rarity in thematic land.
• An early mover in the theme. It listed in May 2023 as RSHO, more than a year before iShares brought its U.S. manufacturing index fund (MADE) to market.businesswire.cominvesting.com
• Among the reshoring and supply-chain funds we review, it sits in the upper half of the group, with tradability its stronger suit.

Worth knowing

• IETC Roughly 100 stocks in one sector, and it sits at the higher-volatility end of what we track. Tech drawdowns land with little inside the portfolio to cushion them.
• "Tech independence" is BlackRock's own call, set by proprietary models rather than a public index, and iShares notes the classification system may not achieve its intended results.ishares.com
• Mid-sized and moderately traded rather than a headline-volume ETF, so limit orders are the sensible habit on larger tickets.

• WELD At 0.75% a year it matches the median for its peer group, but broader index rivals cost less: MADE at 0.40% and IETC at 0.18%.
• Roughly 26 holdings concentrated in Industrials, Materials and Utilities means one company or one sector cycle can move the whole fund.temaetfs.com
• It trades thinly next to the category's index heavyweights, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than headline expenses suggest.

Full IETC profile⁠

Full WELD profile⁠