WEPN vs XAR

WEPNDNicholas Defense and Rare Earth Income ETF

XARAState Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF

In short

WEPN Defense, aerospace and cyber stocks plus ETPs tracking strategic metals, wrapped in an options overlay. It takes a theme investors usually buy for growth and runs it for cash instead.

XAR Most defense funds hand the wheel to a handful of giant primes. XAR spreads its roughly 50 aerospace and defense names close to equal weight, so a mid cap parts maker carries about the same load as a household-name contractor.

Stated mandate

WEPN The Fund primarily seeks capital appreciation and secondarily seeks current income.

XAR The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return performance of the S&P Aerospace & Defense Select Industry Index.

Why people hold it

• WEPN Three sleeves, one ticker: defense and rare-earth equities, exchange-traded products tied to metals like copper, lithium, cobalt and platinum, and an options overlay that sells premium.nicholasx.com
• Built as an income vehicle in a corner of the market that rarely pays one. Net option premiums are the main fuel, and the prospectus targets weekly cash distributions.nicholasx.com
• Actively managed rather than index-locked, so holdings and the options book can be reshaped as defense budgets and critical-mineral supply chains shift.nicholasx.com

• XAR Modified equal weighting keeps any single prime contractor from running the show: large, mid and small cap names carry similar weight in the index.ssga.com
• Costs 0.35% a year, under the 0.50% typical of defense funds and a hair below ITA at 0.37%. Cheap for a targeted industry bet.
• Trading since 2011 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, it is one of the most established and best-built ways to own the US aerospace and defense industry.
• About 50 US-listed aerospace and defense stocks pulled from the S&P Total Market Index, so suppliers and smaller specialists sit alongside the famous names.ssga.com

Worth knowing

• WEPN At 1.11% a year, it costs roughly double what the typical global thematic ETF charges. Layered strategies bill you for the layers.
• Selling options funds the payout and trims the upside. In a sharp defense or metals rally, the overlay hands back part of the move.nicholasx.com
• Launched in 2026, so the track record is short, and it is a small, thinly traded fund where bid-ask spreads can run wider than in large thematic ETFs.

• XAR One industry, tied to government budgets and order cycles. Expect bigger swings than a broad market fund.
• Equal weighting leans on smaller suppliers, which cuts both ways: less of the fund rides the megacap primes when those lead.ssga.com
• Distributions land quarterly, but this is an industry growth basket, not an income vehicle.

Full WEPN profile⁠

Full XAR profile⁠