PSWD vs WCBR

PSWDBXtrackers Cybersecurity Select Equity ETF

WCBRCWisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund

In short

PSWD Cybersecurity at a discount: PSWD charges 0.20% for a focused basket of about 50 security names, well under half the typical fee in its category. The trade-off is scale, not strategy: it's a small 2023 launch.

WCBR Cyber defense, distilled: a global basket of roughly 30 stocks with an ESG screen built into the index, at 0.45% a year. Concentration is the design choice, not an accident.

Stated mandate

PSWD The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Solactive Cyber Security ESG Screened Index.

WCBR The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Solactive Cyber Security ESG Screened Index.

Why people hold it

• PSWD Fee leader in the theme: 0.20% a year, against 0.47% for IHAK, 0.58% for CIBR and 0.60% for HACK. The category median sits at 0.50%.
• Pure-play and disciplined: roughly 50 cybersecurity companies drawn from a rules-based Solactive index, and the portfolio has tracked that benchmark closely.
• Runs on Xtrackers plumbing, the ETF arm of DWS, rather than a one-fund boutique.dws.com

• WCBR At 0.45%, it undercuts the cybersecurity cohort's median fee of 0.50% and comes in cheaper than CIBR (0.58%) and HACK (0.60%).
• About 30 holdings, global mandate. A tight expression of the theme rather than a broad tech basket with a cyber label on the tin.
• The benchmark, Solactive's Cyber Security ESG Screened Index, filters on ESG criteria before the stock picking, so the screen is part of the machinery, not an add-on.
• Live since 2021 and sitting in the upper half of its cybersecurity peer group on our review.

Worth knowing

• PSWD Small asset base and light trading volume. Spreads can run wider than at the category's household names, which matters most on larger orders.
• The screen is not permanent: Xtrackers filed to drop the index's ESG screen and rename it the Solactive Cyber Security Focus Index.sec.gov
• One theme, about 50 holdings, non-diversified by design. Expect sharper swings than a broad technology fund.

• WCBR Thinly traded next to the category's giants, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads and more slippage on the way in and out.
• PSWD tracks the same declared index at 0.20%, so the fee advantage here holds against most of the cohort but not that one.
• Thirty-odd stocks in a single theme swing harder than a diversified fund, and it has not been paying distributions, so price is the whole story.

Full PSWD profile⁠

Full WCBR profile⁠