SPHQ vs VUSE

SPHQAInvesco S&P 500 Quality ETF

VUSEBVident U.S. Equity Strategy ETF

In short

SPHQ Live since 2005, SPHQ is an elder statesman of quality investing: rank the S&P 500 on profitability, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength, hold the top 100, charge 0.15% net of a waiver through August 31, 2028.

VUSE A quality fund that starts in the boardroom: VUSE's index screens U.S. companies on corporate governance and accounting quality, then spreads weight across giant, large and small/mid caps instead of letting the biggest names run the show.

Stated mandate

SPHQ The fund seeks exposure to the S&P 500 Quality Index and normally invests at least 90% of assets in common stocks included in that index.

VUSE The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Vident U.S. Quality Index. The index strategy selects U.S. equities using corporate-governance and accounting quality measures.

Why people hold it

• SPHQ 0.15% net of a waiver through August 31, 2028 (0.20% gross), below the median for quality factor funds and level with QUAL and FQAL at 0.15%.
• The rules are published and mechanical: score the S&P 500 on return on equity, accruals ratio and financial leverage ratio, take the top 100, weight by quality score times market cap.spglobal.com
• Universe discipline: candidates come only from the S&P 500, so every holding is an established large cap rather than a smaller name screened in from a broader pool.spglobal.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, pays quarterly, and has run since 2005. It sits in the stronger tier of quality factor ETFs.

• VUSE The governance angle. Most quality indexes rank profits and balance sheets; Vident's also scores management stewardship and accounting quality, then adjusts each holding's weight on that score.videntam.com
• Not a closet index clone. Weight is deliberately spread across giant, large and small/mid-cap segments, so mid-sized companies get real representation.videntam.com
• Live since 2014 with several hundred million dollars in assets: a decade-plus of real-world results, not a backtest. Income is paid out quarterly.
• Does what the label says. A rules-based U.S. equity portfolio built to the governance-and-quality mandate written into its own prospectus, with no style drift hiding in the holdings.

Worth knowing

• SPHQ About 100 stocks, weighted by quality score times market cap, so the biggest high-scorers carry real weight. Narrower than owning the full S&P 500.spglobal.com
• The index rebalances semiannually, so a company whose fundamentals slip mid-period stays in the portfolio until the next reshuffle.spglobal.com
• Two peers undercut it on fee: JQUA at 0.12% and VFQY at 0.13%.

• VUSE At 0.50% a year it costs well above the quality-factor mainstays (JQUA 0.12%, QUAL and FQAL 0.15%) and above the group's typical fee. The governance layer has to earn that gap.
• It trades thinly next to those peers, so bid-ask spreads can run wider, which matters most on larger orders.
• The scoring is Vident's own, so holdings can look quite different from a standard quality index for long stretches. It sits in the lower half of its quality-factor peer group.

Full SPHQ profile⁠

Full VUSE profile⁠