MFEM vs QLVE

MFEMCPIMCO RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor Emerging Markets Equity ETF

QLVEBNorthern Trust Emerging Markets Quality Low Volatility ETF

In short

MFEM Most multifactor emerging-market funds pick their factor weights and leave them. PIMCO's version rotates, leaning toward factors that look cheap against their own history and are turning up. Contrarian machinery from Research Affiliates, roughly 800 stocks deep.

QLVE Most emerging-markets factor funds chase value. QLVE goes the other way: cut the weakest fifth on quality, then optimize what is left toward lower volatility. Cost is 0.18% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027.

Stated mandate

MFEM The Fund seeks to track the RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor Emerging Markets Index. It normally invests at least 80% of assets in the index’s component securities and is designed to provide long-only emerging-market equity exposure across multiple factors.

QLVE The Fund is designed for investors seeking emerging-markets exposure with an emphasis on quality and low volatility. It seeks to match, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Northern Trust Emerging Markets Quality Low Volatility Index.

Why people hold it

• MFEM The index doesn't hold factor weights still. It rebalances toward factors with attractive relative valuations that are also showing a momentum upswing.rafi.com
• Four factors in one long-only emerging-market wrapper: value, momentum, quality and low volatility. No single-factor bet to time yourself.
• Roughly 800 holdings, so no single name carries the portfolio. Distributions come quarterly.
• A PIMCO fund running a Research Affiliates index, live since 2017. This is not a strategy that showed up last quarter.researchaffiliates.com

• QLVE At 0.18% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027, it undercuts every top-scoring fund in its peer group, including EMGF at 0.26% and FDEM at 0.25%.
• The index cuts the lowest-quality fifth of emerging-markets large and mid caps on profitability, cash flow and capital deployment, then optimizes the rest for lower volatility.flexshares.comnortherntrust.com
• Sector, industry and country weights are held within set bands of the parent benchmark and turnover is capped near 12% a rebalance, curbing the sector drift low-vol screens invite.northerntrust.comsec.gov
• Sits in the upper half of its emerging-markets factor peer group and has stayed close to its stated index.

Worth knowing

• MFEM At 0.50% it prices above the typical multifactor EM fund and above cheaper peers like EMGF (0.26%) and AVES (0.36%). Overall it lands in the lower half of its peer group.
• Thinly traded next to its category, which can mean wider spreads. Limit orders carry more weight here than with the group's heavyweights.
• Rotating factor weights is an active call baked into the index. The path can look quite different from plain cap-weighted emerging markets, in both directions.rafi.com

• QLVE Thinly traded with a small asset base, so spreads can run wider than the category heavyweights and limit orders matter more.
• Roughly 160 holdings with meaningful weight in the largest names, so it is more top-heavy than a broad emerging-markets index fund.
• Lower volatility is the design goal, not an outcome the fund controls: the index aims to be calmer than its parent, and the fund tracks it either way.sec.govflexshares.com

Full MFEM profile⁠

Full QLVE profile⁠