SLX vs XME

SLXDVanEck Steel ETF

XMEBState Street SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF

In short

SLX Most materials funds hand you chemicals, paint and packaging. SLX skips all that for steel alone: roughly 40 mills and miners worldwide, tracked by index since 2006.

XME Not the chemicals-heavy materials fund. XME holds roughly 40 miners and steelmakers on a modified equal weight, so a small copper name carries about the weight of a giant. Ore, coal and metal, since 2006.

Stated mandate

SLX The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MarketVector Global Steel Index, representing companies involved in the global steel segment.

XME The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return performance of the S&P Metals and Mining Select Industry Index.

Why people hold it

• SLX Pure steel, not diluted. It tracks the MarketVector Global Steel Index, roughly 40 companies in the steel segment, instead of a broad materials basket.vaneck.com
• Global by design: the index reaches steel companies listed outside the US, so exposure is not tied to one country's mills.vaneck.com
• Launched in 2006 and run as a passive index fund, it has carried the same single-industry mandate through multiple steel cycles.

• XME Pure play on the metals and mining slice: aluminum, coal, copper, gold, precious metals, silver and steel sub-industries, not the whole materials sector.ssga.com
• Modified equal weighting spreads exposure across large, mid and small caps, so the biggest miners don't set the tone for the whole portfolio.ssga.com
• One of the more actively traded funds in its corner of the market, and a multi-billion-dollar fund that has been running since 2006.
• 0.35% expense ratio, slightly under the median for the materials funds we grade, which is unusual for a narrow industry sleeve.

Worth knowing

• SLX The specialty focus comes at a specialty price: 0.55% a year, versus 0.08% for XLB and 0.09% for VAW on the broad materials side.
• One industry, about 40 names. Results ride on the global steel segment rather than the wider materials sector, and holdings are spread across foreign markets.
• Cash comes back once or twice a year, not monthly, and the fund sits on the smaller, moderately traded end of its category.

• XME Broad materials funds cost far less: XLB at 0.08% and VAW at 0.09%. They also own a very different mix, chemicals and packaging included.
• About 40 names, many of them smaller miners, in one cyclical industry. Swings run wider than a diversified sector fund's.
• The portfolio's fortunes track commodity cycles in steel, coal, copper and gold rather than broad industrial demand.ssga.com

Full SLX profile⁠

Full XME profile⁠