OUSA vs SPYD

OUSACALPS Funds O’Shares U.S. Quality Dividend ETF

SPYDAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF

In short

OUSA Three filters, one dividend fund: quality, low volatility and dividend growth, stacked on US large- and mid-caps, then paid out monthly. The boutique, premium-priced take in an aisle stocked with cheap giants.

SPYD Most dividend ETFs hunt for companies that keep raising payouts. SPYD skips the courtship and goes straight for the yield: roughly 80 high-dividend names out of the S&P 500, for 0.07% a year.

Stated mandate

OUSA OUSA seeks, before fees and expenses, to track the O'Shares U.S. Quality Dividend Index. It is designed to provide access to U.S. large- and mid-cap dividend-paying companies selected using quality, low-volatility and dividend-growth measures.

SPYD The fund seeks to provide returns that generally correspond to the total return of the S&P 500 High Dividend Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• OUSA No yield chase. The index screens US large- and mid-caps on quality, low volatility and dividend growth, so the filters come before the payout.alpsfunds.com
• Distributions land monthly, and the portfolio stays tight at roughly 100 names rather than sprawling across the whole dividend market.
• Live since 2015, with real trading history through rate swings and drawdowns instead of a backtest. The holdings line up with the index it advertises.

• SPYD 0.07% a year against a 0.39% median across dividend-screen peers. It undercuts DGRO's 0.08% and sits a hair above SCHD.
• A pure yield screen, not a growth screen. Where VIG and DGRO buy payout raisers, SPYD takes the high-dividend end of the S&P 500. Different flavor of the same food group.
• Running since 2015, now a multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded names in its cohort, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• Pays quarterly and has tracked the S&P 500 High Dividend Index closely, which is the whole job for a fund like this.

Worth knowing

• OUSA At 0.48% a year it costs more than the typical dividend screener, and index heavyweights like SCHD, VIG and DGRO charge a fraction of that.
• Trading is thin next to the category's giants, which can mean wider spreads on the way in and on the way out.
• In a crowded field of dividend screeners it sits in the lower stretch overall, with cost the main drag on an otherwise on-mandate portfolio.

• SPYD About 80 stocks is a narrow slice. Screening on yield pulls the sector mix away from the broad S&P 500, and the ride can be bumpier than the index it comes from.
• A high yield is a ranking, not a promise. The index sorts on payout size, not on how reliably a company has grown or defended that payout.

Full OUSA profile⁠

Full SPYD profile⁠