PIO vs TBLU

PIODInvesco Global Water ETF

TBLUBTortoise Global Water Fund

In short

PIO Invesco's passport-carrying water fund: about 40 companies pulled from a Nasdaq global water index, running since 2007. The overseas counterpart to the US-focused water ETFs sitting next to it on Invesco's shelf.

TBLU Tortoise didn't license a water benchmark, it built one. TBLU tracks its own global water index, ESG screened, for 0.40% a year.

Stated mandate

PIO The fund seeks to track the performance of the Nasdaq OMX Global Water Index before fees and expenses and generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities represented by that index.

TBLU The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total-return performance of the Tortoise Global Water Net Total Return Index.

Why people hold it

• PIO A genuinely global mandate. It tracks the Nasdaq OMX Global Water Index and keeps at least 90% of assets in that index's names, so the water story isn't limited to US utilities and pipe makers.invesco.com
• Launched in 2007, back when water was a fringe theme. It has run through multiple market cycles rather than arriving with the latest thematic wave.
• Rules-based and compact: roughly 40 holdings chosen by the index, not by a manager's conviction, with distributions paid quarterly.

• TBLU Costs 0.40% a year, at the low end of the water category and under the bigger water funds FIW, CGW and PHO.
• Tracks the in-house Tortoise Global Water Net Total Return Index: water companies worldwide, with an ESG screen written into selection.
• Trading since 2017, so it has a real operating history rather than a launch-week theme deck.
• Stands in the upper half of a small water-ETF peer group, helped by the cheap fee.

Worth knowing

• PIO At 0.75%, it charges more than the typical water fund. Invesco's own CGW runs 0.58% and First Trust's FIW 0.50%, both chasing similar plumbing.
• Thinly traded compared with the bigger names in the category, which tends to mean wider spreads at the moment you actually transact.
• About 40 stocks spread across global markets: individual names carry real weight, and foreign-listed holdings bring currency movement along for the ride.

• TBLU Thinly traded next to the category's largest funds, so spreads can be wider and big orders need more care.
• The benchmark is Tortoise's own index, not a third-party one, so cross-provider methodology comparisons take extra digging.
• One theme, global scope: it can move a long way from a broad world equity fund in either direction. Cash comes once or twice a year, not monthly.

Full PIO profile⁠

Full TBLU profile⁠