NSI vs SPYV

NSIFNational Security Emerging Markets Index ETF

SPYVAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Value 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.

SPYV The value side of the S&P 500, tracked since 2000 for four basis points. It does one thing: hold the index names that screen cheap, and charge close to nothing for the privilege.

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.

SPYV The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the S&P 500 Value 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

• SPYV 0.04% a year. VOOV tracks the identical S&P 500 Value Index and charges 0.07%, so this is the same exposure at a lower fee.
• Trading since 2000 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands actively, so the plumbing is well worn.
• No stock picking, no factor secret sauce: it aims to match the S&P 500 Value Index before fees, and it is one of the cleaner implementations in its peer group.ssga.com

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

• SPYV This is one style slice, roughly 400 value-screened names, not the whole S&P 500. It will move differently from the full index.
• Value goes through long stretches in and out of favor. The fund follows the index rules either way, with no manager stepping in.
• Distributions land quarterly, not monthly.

Full NSI profile⁠

Full SPYV profile⁠