IHAK vs WCBR

IHAKBiShares Cybersecurity and Tech ETF

WCBRCWisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund

In short

IHAK The cheap, genuinely global way to own cybersecurity. IHAK tracks a worldwide cyber index that reaches into emerging markets, holds roughly 40 names, and undercuts the category's two best-known funds on fees.

WCBR Cyber defense, distilled: a global basket of roughly 30 stocks with an ESG screen built into the index, at 0.45% a year. Concentration is the design choice, not an accident.

Stated mandate

IHAK The fund tracks a global equity index of companies focused on cybersecurity hardware, software, and services, providing exposure across developed and emerging markets.

WCBR The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Solactive Cyber Security ESG Screened Index.

Why people hold it

• IHAK 0.47% a year, under the cybersecurity cohort's 0.50% median and below both CIBR (0.58%) and HACK (0.60%).
• Genuinely global mandate: the NYSE FactSet Global Cyber Security Index spans developed and emerging markets, so security spending outside the US counts.ishares.com
• About 40 names across cyber hardware, software and services. Tight enough to be a real theme bet, wide enough not to ride on one vendor.
• Live since 2019 on iShares plumbing, and it stands in the upper tier of its eight-fund cybersecurity peer group.

• WCBR At 0.45%, it undercuts the cybersecurity cohort's median fee of 0.50% and comes in cheaper than CIBR (0.58%) and HACK (0.60%).
• About 30 holdings, global mandate. A tight expression of the theme rather than a broad tech basket with a cyber label on the tin.
• The benchmark, Solactive's Cyber Security ESG Screened Index, filters on ESG criteria before the stock picking, so the screen is part of the machinery, not an add-on.
• Live since 2021 and sitting in the upper half of its cybersecurity peer group on our review.

Worth knowing

• IHAK One theme, roughly 40 stocks. If enterprise security budgets stall, there is nowhere inside the portfolio to hide.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy. Less actively traded funds can carry wider bid-ask spreads, especially around the open and close.
• Global reach cuts both ways: foreign and emerging-market holdings add currency and country risk on top of the tech cycle.

• WCBR Thinly traded next to the category's giants, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads and more slippage on the way in and out.
• PSWD tracks the same declared index at 0.20%, so the fee advantage here holds against most of the cohort but not that one.
• Thirty-odd stocks in a single theme swing harder than a diversified fund, and it has not been paying distributions, so price is the whole story.

Full IHAK profile⁠

Full WCBR profile⁠