TCV vs TVAL

TCVDTowle Small-Cap Value ETF

TVALAT. Rowe Price Value ETF

In short

TCV Towle runs one thing: its own definition of value, chosen stock by stock instead of by screen. The fund's history goes back to 2011, and it is priced like the boutique active manager behind it, not like an index tracker.

TVAL T. Rowe Price's value discipline in an ETF wrapper since 2023: roughly 150 hand-picked large-cap names judged undervalued on multiple financial measures, benchmarked to the Russell 1000 Value, at about half the fee of the typical active equity ETF.

Stated mandate

TCV The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It is an actively managed ETF.

TVAL The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through an actively managed portfolio primarily invested in common stocks.

Why people hold it

• TCV Genuinely active, not a rules-based value screen. Holdings come from Towle & Co.'s own definition of value in pursuit of long-term capital appreciation, so you get a house view rather than an index recipe.
• A 2011 inception gives this strategy a track record across several full market cycles, a longer history than most active equity ETFs can show.
• Plain wrapper, no engineering: a standard 1940 Act registered fund holding equities, with no structural flags in our review.

• TVAL 0.33% a year, roughly half the median for active US equity ETFs. Real stock picking without the classic active price tag.troweprice.com
• Genuine conviction, not closet indexing: about 150 large-cap, value-oriented stocks chosen by fundamental research, measured against the Russell 1000 Value.troweprice.com
• Sits in the top tier of a peer group of hundreds of active US equity ETFs, one of the stronger all-round builds in a crowded aisle.

Worth knowing

• TCV Cost is the trade-off for boutique stock picking: 0.85% a year, above the 0.65% median for active US equity ETFs and many times the 0.12% charged by core peers like DFAU.
• It trades thinly. Spreads tend to be wider than on mega-cap index funds, which makes limit orders and patient execution matter more.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, so this is built around capital appreciation rather than a regular income stream.

• TVAL Cheap for an active fund, not cheap outright. Systematic peers like DFAU (0.12%) and AVLC (0.15%) cover US equity for less than half the cost.
• Launched in 2023, so the ETF's own record is short next to the long-running value funds it competes with.troweprice.com
• Built for long-term capital growth, not a paycheck: distributions are annual, and the fund discloses that part of a payout can be return of capital.

Full TCV profile⁠

Full TVAL profile⁠