NSI vs VOOV

NSIFNational Security Emerging Markets Index ETF

VOOVAVanguard 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.

VOOV Vanguard takes the S&P 500, sorts it by value traits, and hands you the cheap half: roughly 400 familiar large caps, one published index, seven basis points. A value tilt without leaving the blue-chip universe.

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.

VOOV The fund seeks to track the performance 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

• VOOV Charges 0.07% a year against a 0.45% median for its index-tracker peer group. The value tilt arrives without the usual factor-fund markup.
• No manager discretion. It follows one published benchmark, the S&P 500 Value Index, holding roughly 400 large-cap names most investors already know.vanguard.com
• Running since 2010 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, it sits among the strongest implementations in its peer group of plain index wrappers.

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

• VOOV SPYV tracks the same S&P 500 Value Index for 0.04%. Same benchmark, thinner fee.
• You own one side of the index. When the growth half of the S&P 500 leads, this fund's path diverges from the headline benchmark.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy, so spreads can run wider than the busiest large-cap ETFs. Cash comes back quarterly, not monthly.

Full NSI profile⁠

Full VOOV profile⁠