ISTM vs SDMF

ISTMCiShares Strategic Metals ETF

SDMFBSimplify DBi CTA Managed Futures Index ETF

In short

ISTM Born in 2023 as a clean-energy metals fund, re-badged in 2026 around re-industrialization: one long-only basket of metal futures, now aimed at AI buildouts, grids and defense. 0.47% net of a waiver through February 29, 2028.

SDMF Managed futures without the hedge fund bill. SDMF tracks an index built to replicate what CTA trend funds are actually doing, using a short list of liquid futures markets, for 0.35% a year.

Stated mandate

ISTM The Fund seeks to track a commodities futures index providing strategic exposure to metals used in structural themes including AI infrastructure, manufacturing, energy production and distribution, and national security.

SDMF The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• ISTM Fee lands below the category median: 0.47% net of a waiver through February 29, 2028, against a 0.49% gross rate.
• Category rivals buy the whole commodity shelf (energy, grains, livestock). This one holds a long-only basket of exchange-traded metal futures and nothing else.sec.gov
• Metals exposure runs through futures in a wholly owned Cayman subsidiary, capped at 25% of fund assets to stay inside Subchapter M's rules for fund-level tax treatment.ishares.comsec.gov

• SDMF Charges 0.35%, roughly half the typical fee among futures-strategy funds in its group. Cheap shelf space for a strategy that usually arrives with hedge fund pricing.
• Rules over hunches: it follows the DBi CTA Managed Futures Index and its advertised 10-factor replication approach, not a trader's discretion.simplify.us
• Its cohort is mostly long-only commodity baskets (BCI, CMDY). This one is a managed futures strategy, which can lean either direction across futures markets.
• Ordinary 1940 Act ETF plumbing: daily pricing, intraday trading, no lockup or subscription paperwork.

Worth knowing

• ISTM Cheaper broad-basket options sit in the same category: BCI at 0.26% and COMB at 0.25%, neither waiver-dependent, for diversified commodity exposure instead of metals only.
• Small and lightly traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than in the category's biggest funds.
• It owns futures, not metal, and the index behind it changed in 2026, so the record since the 2023 launch reflects a different basket for much of that stretch.sec.gov

• SDMF Launched in 2026, so there is no long record here and the risk picture rests on limited history.
• A small fund that has traded lightly since launch, so spreads can run wider than the big commodity index names in its category.
• The stated goal is long-term capital appreciation, and payouts come once or twice a year at most. Not built as an income stream.

Full ISTM profile⁠

Full SDMF profile⁠