NSI vs PBUS

NSIFNational Security Emerging Markets Index ETF

PBUSAInvesco MSCI USA ETF

In short

NSI Emerging markets, run through a national-security filter. NSI tracks a purpose-built index that screens out companies flagged as threats to US interests, then holds what survives passively.

PBUS Roughly 500 US stocks for 0.04% a year, benchmarked to the MSCI USA Index instead of the S&P 500. Invesco's rules-based core holding, running since 2017.

Stated mandate

NSI The Fund aims to follow the Alerian National Security Emerging Markets Index before fees and expenses. It invests at least 80% of total assets in index components and generally uses passive replication.

PBUS The Fund tracks the MSCI USA Index and commits at least 90% of its assets to securities included in that index.

Why people hold it

• NSI The whole point: a rules-based process that filters out EM companies tripping any of nine national-security screens, from sanctions lists on down.vettafi.com
• Ordinary index plumbing underneath. Passive replication, at least 80% of assets in index components, drawn from a universe of the 500 largest EM stocks.nasdaqtrader.com
• The benchmark is calculated by an outside index provider (VettaFi) rather than the adviser, and the fund distributes quarterly.vettafi.com

• PBUS 0.04% a year sits at the floor of its peer group, matching SPYV and a hair above SCHK's 0.03%.invesco.com
• Returns have hugged the MSCI USA Index about as tightly as anything in its cohort, so index-level exposure arrives with very little slippage.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund trading since 2017, with a real market cycle behind it rather than a launch-window track record.
• Roughly 500 names and quarterly distributions: a plain broad-market wrapper with no options overlay, no leverage, no sector tilt bolted on.

Worth knowing

• NSI It runs 0.75% a year, well above the going rate for plain-vanilla index trackers. The screen is what the premium buys.
• A small fund that trades thinly, so spreads can be wide and patient limit orders matter more than usual.
• Exclusions turn on the sponsor's own view of what threatens US national security, so the holdings can look quite different from a standard EM index.nasdaqtrader.com

• PBUS MSCI USA is not the S&P 500. Holdings and results drift from an S&P-benchmarked portfolio, which matters if that is the yardstick you track against.invesco.com
• The mandate commits at least 90% of assets to index securities, which leaves a slice of room outside the benchmark.
• Moderately traded rather than one of the tape's busiest tickers, so spreads deserve a glance and limit orders earn their keep.

Full NSI profile⁠

Full PBUS profile⁠