NBDS vs XT

NBDSCNeuberger Berman Disrupters ETF

XTAiShares Future Exponential Technologies ETF

In short

NBDS Most disruption funds hand the job to a rulebook. NBDS hands it to Neuberger Berman's analysts: roughly 30 hand-picked companies whose technologies or services may reshape their markets, priced at the category's going rate.

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

NBDS The Fund targets companies offering differentiated solutions, technologies, or services that may create or reshape markets, using internal research and analysis to identify such businesses.

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

• NBDS Human stock-picking, not a screen. Managers use internal research to hunt companies with differentiated solutions, technologies or services that may create or reshape markets.
• Concentrated by design: about 30 names, so a winner actually moves the needle instead of getting diluted inside a sprawling innovation basket.
• Active management at index-fund pricing for this corner: the 0.65% expense ratio sits right at the median for disruptive-innovation ETFs.
• Holds up well against a crowded field, landing in the upper half of its disruptive-innovation peer group on our overall read.

• 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

• NBDS Thinly traded. Shares change hands lightly, which can mean wider gaps between buy and sell prices than the big names in the theme.
• Cheaper index routes to similar ground exist, including KOMP at 0.20% and XT at 0.46%.
• A 30-stock portfolio of high-growth disruptors concentrates risk, and the fund only launched in 2022, so the track record is short.

• 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 NBDS profile⁠

Full XT profile⁠