SOCL vs XITK

SOCLCGlobal X Social Media ETF

XITKAState Street SPDR FactSet Innovative Technology ETF

In short

SOCL Social media as one ticker: about 50 platform companies worldwide, tracked to a Solactive index. Running since 2011, which makes it a veteran of the thematic shelf.

XITK Most innovation funds pick a theme and hope. XITK lets the data pick: FactSet ranks tech and electronic-media segments by growth, keeps the top quartile, then equal-weights roughly 100 names so no single giant runs the show.

Stated mandate

SOCL The fund seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Solactive Social Media Total Return Index, before fees and expenses.

XITK The fund seeks to track the total return of the FactSet Innovative Technology Index before fees and expenses. Its mandate targets innovative technology-related companies with robust revenue growth and leading-edge products or services.

Why people hold it

• SOCL Pure play, not a sprinkle. The index targets social and communications platforms directly, roughly 50 of them, rather than burying a few inside a broad tech basket.globalxetfs.com
• Global mandate, so the basket reaches past US names to platforms listed abroad, where much of the world's scrolling actually happens.globalxetfs.com
• The 0.65% fee sits right at the median for its innovation-theme peer group. Narrow focus, no novelty surcharge.
• Live since 2011 and rules-based: the fund follows the Solactive Social Media index through platform cycles instead of a manager's hunch about the next feed.

• XITK Costs 0.45% a year, comfortably under the 0.65% median for disruptive-innovation funds, and it does it inside a plain index wrapper from a major ETF shop.
• Equal weighting at each reset gives the hundredth holding the same slot as the first, so results lean on the whole basket rather than two or three mega-caps.factset.com
• Screens segments, not slogans: only companies drawing most of their revenue from the fastest-growing corners of tech and electronic media make the cut.factset.comssga.com
• Trading since 2016, giving it a live record across several tech cycles, and it sits in the upper tier of our innovation-fund cohort review.

Worth knowing

• SOCL Thinly traded and modest in size, so spreads can widen. Limit orders matter more here than in a mega-cap fund.
• About 50 stocks in one theme means ad-market swings and single-company headlines land harder than they would in a broad index.
• Broader innovation peers charge less for wider nets: KOMP at 0.20% and XT at 0.46%. The tight focus is the thing you're paying up for.

• XITK Growth-screened tech, equal-weighted, means smaller names carry a giant's weight. Expect a rougher ride than a cap-weighted tech fund.
• Thinly traded for its category and modest in size, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the household-name tech ETFs.
• Cheaper shelfmates exist: KOMP runs a broad new-economy basket for 0.20%.

Full SOCL profile⁠

Full XITK profile⁠