QLVE vs UEVM

QLVEBNorthern Trust Emerging Markets Quality Low Volatility ETF

UEVMCVictoryShares Emerging Markets Value Momentum ETF

In short

QLVE Most emerging-markets factor funds chase value. QLVE goes the other way: cut the weakest fifth on quality, then optimize what is left toward lower volatility. Cost is 0.18% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027.

UEVM Value and momentum usually pull in opposite directions. UEVM runs both at once, tracking an MSCI blend index that tilts a portfolio of emerging-market stocks toward the cheap names and the ones already working.

Stated mandate

QLVE The Fund is designed for investors seeking emerging-markets exposure with an emphasis on quality and low volatility. It seeks to match, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Northern Trust Emerging Markets Quality Low Volatility Index.

UEVM The Fund seeks to track the performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets Select Value Momentum Blend Index before fees and expenses. Its strategy targets global emerging-market equities with greater exposure to value and momentum characteristics.

Why people hold it

• QLVE At 0.18% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027, it undercuts every top-scoring fund in its peer group, including EMGF at 0.26% and FDEM at 0.25%.
• The index cuts the lowest-quality fifth of emerging-markets large and mid caps on profitability, cash flow and capital deployment, then optimizes the rest for lower volatility.flexshares.comnortherntrust.com
• Sector, industry and country weights are held within set bands of the parent benchmark and turnover is capped near 12% a rebalance, curbing the sector drift low-vol screens invite.northerntrust.comsec.gov
• Sits in the upper half of its emerging-markets factor peer group and has stayed close to its stated index.

• UEVM Two factors, one ticker: the index leans emerging-market equities toward both value and momentum characteristics, so you aren't picking a side between cheap stocks and stocks with wind behind them.
• Roughly 200 holdings spread across emerging markets, so no single company or story carries the fund. The portfolio construction is a relative strength here.
• Rules-based and index-tracking since its 2017 launch. The factor tilts come from MSCI's published methodology, not a manager's gut call, and it has traded through several full emerging-market cycles.

Worth knowing

• QLVE Thinly traded with a small asset base, so spreads can run wider than the category heavyweights and limit orders matter more.
• Roughly 160 holdings with meaningful weight in the largest names, so it is more top-heavy than a broad emerging-markets index fund.
• Lower volatility is the design goal, not an outcome the fund controls: the index aims to be calmer than its parent, and the fund tracks it either way.sec.govflexshares.com

• UEVM At 0.53% a year, it costs more than the typical multifactor emerging-market fund. EMGF (0.26%) and AVES (0.36%) run similar factor mandates for meaningfully less.
• Thinly traded compared with its peer group, which tends to mean wider bid-ask spreads and more slippage on larger or hurried orders.
• Distributions land on an irregular schedule rather than a fixed quarterly or monthly rhythm, so the income timing is unpredictable.

Full QLVE profile⁠

Full UEVM profile⁠