The shelf
The shelf
Every fund this project has priced or measured, and nothing else. Most of them were read in order to rule them out. 7 are in the portfolio; the other 59 are here because somebody had to price them before they could be ruled out.
What a fund costs is its fee less what it earns lending
Funds lend the shares they hold to other investors and keep part of the payment. That income comes back to you inside the fund, so the fee on the label overstates what you hand over. The Cost column is the fee less that income, and it does not order the funds the way the fee does. Almost nobody publishes the second number.
SPY is the clearest case. It costs 0.0945% a year to own, about five times any other fund tracking the same index, because a 1993 trust of its kind cannot lend at all. On $100,000 that is about $95 a year against about $29 for VOO, which holds the same 500 companies.
The same thing happens on an identical sticker price. BND and SPAB both charge 3.00 basis points. BND lends nothing at all, so it costs 3.00; SPAB lends, so it costs 2.09. Same fee, and the dearest broad bond fund audited here.
A spread is paid once. A fee is paid every year.
The spread is the gap between the price you buy at and the price you could sell at, and you pay it on the way in. Over a long hold the yearly fee wins: SPY has the tightest spread on this shelf and still costs the most to own. Shorten the hold and it turns around.
CTAP's spread is 0.33% percent of price of the price against RSST's 0.09% percent of price. Hold either for a year and that gap costs about 24 basis points a year, on a group of three funds whose all-in charges (the fee, plus what the funds inside them charge) differ by only 18. Count the entry cost and CTAP is the dearest of the three rather than the cheapest. The two columns never add up, because one is paid once and the other every year. Which of them decides is a question about how long you hold.
Some fees have an end date
DFEV's 43.00 basis points holds only while a waiver runs, through 2027-02-28. FFUT's 80.00 is a cap its board can let lapse after 2027-05-31. CTAP charges less than the 28.00 shown until its own waiver ends on 2026-12-04, and the full figure afterwards. If you still hold any of the three past those dates, read the fee again.
There is no beat-the-market column
That is deliberate. The smallest gap a test like this can usually see is about 5.01 percentage points a year, against roughly 1.25 of real difference between funds. So the test mostly reports noise, and a column of it would read as a finding.
How much of a thing each fund delivers is missing for a plainer reason. Each of those figures was fitted on the months that fund had filed, and the runs of months do not match. VTV carries 72 of them and DFLV 36. On the 36 they share, VTV's cheap-stock exposure rises from +0.337 to +0.520, which takes the published order of the US value funds apart. Two such figures side by side would compare answers to two different questions.
US core
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VTI | Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF | 3.00 | 1.16 | 0.55 | Not scored |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 3.00 | 2.94 | — | Not scored |
| ITOT | iShares Core S&P Total US Stock Market ETF | 3.00 | 1.04 | — | Not scored |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 9.45 | 9.45 | 0.00 | Not scored |
US value
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VTV | Vanguard Value ETF | 3.00 | 2.70 | — | Rejected |
| AVUV | Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF | 25.00 | 24.54 | — | Exploratory |
| DFUV | Dimensional US Marketwide Value ETF | 21.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| DFLV | Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF | 21.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| DFSV | Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF | 30.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| DFAT | Dimensional US Targeted Value ETF | 28.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| RPV | Invesco S&P 500 Pure Value ETF | 35.00 | 33.87 | — | Rejected |
| VBR | Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF | 5.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| AVLV | Avantis U.S. Large Cap Value ETF | 15.00 | 14.94 | — | Exploratory |
| QVAL | Alpha Architect U.S. Quantitative Value ETF | 28.00 | — | — | Rejected |
US small
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVSC | Avantis U.S. Small Cap Equity ETF | 25.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| DFAS | Dimensional U.S. Small Cap ETF | 26.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| VB | Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap ETF | 3.00 | — | 2.72 | Rejected |
US momentum
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTUM | iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF | 15.00 | — | 3.00 | Rejected |
| SPMO | Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF | 13.00 | 12.93 | — | Rejected |
US quality
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QUAL | iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF | 15.00 | — | 3.00 | Rejected |
| SPHQ | Invesco S&P 500 Quality ETF | 15.00 | — | — | Unresolved |
| DUHP | Dimensional US High Profitability ETF | 20.00 | — | — | Unresolved |
International core
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VEA | Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF | 3.00 | -0.30 | 1.41 | Not scored |
| SPDW | SPDR Portfolio Developed World ex-US ETF | 3.00 | -1.63 | — | Not scored |
| IEFA | iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF | 7.00 | 4.65 | — | Not scored |
| VXUS | Vanguard Total International Stock ETF | 5.00 | 1.43 | 1.18 | Not scored |
| SCZ | iShares MSCI EAFE Small-Cap ETF | 40.00 | — | 1.00 | Exploratory |
| GWX | SPDR S&P International Small Cap ETF | 40.00 | — | — | Rejected |
International value
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFIV | Dimensional International Value ETF | 27.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| AVIV | Avantis International Large Cap Value ETF | 25.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| IVLU | iShares MSCI Intl Value Factor ETF | 31.00 | — | 2.00 | Exploratory |
| EFV | iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF | 31.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
International small value
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVDV | Avantis International Small Cap Value ETF | 36.00 | 30.03 | — | Exploratory |
| DISV | Dimensional International Small Cap Value ETF | 42.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
International momentum
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDMO | Invesco S&P International Developed Momentum ETF | 25.00 | 22.59 | — | Exploratory |
| IMTM | iShares MSCI Intl Momentum Factor ETF | 30.00 | — | — | Rejected |
Emerging core
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF | 6.00 | 1.67 | 1.70 | Not scored |
| IEMG | iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 9.00 | -0.87 | 1.00 | Not scored |
Emerging value
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVES | Avantis Emerging Markets Value ETF | 36.00 | 29.21 | — | Unresolved |
| DFEV | Dimensional Emerging Markets Value ETF | 43.00 | — | — | Unresolved |
Bonds
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BND | Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.38 | Not scored |
| SPAB | SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF | 3.00 | 2.09 | — | Not scored |
Managed futures
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DBMF | iMGP DBi Managed Futures Strategy ETF | 85.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| SDMF | Simplify DBi CTA Managed Futures Index ETF | 35.00 | — | 24.00 | Not scored |
| CTA | Simplify Managed Futures Strategy ETF | 75.00 | — | 14.00 | Rejected |
| KMLM | KFA Mount Lucas Managed Futures Index Strategy ETF | 90.00 | — | — | Rejected |
| FMF | First Trust Managed Futures Strategy Fund | 98.00 | — | — | Rejected |
| WTMF | WisdomTree Managed Futures Strategy Fund | 66.00 | — | — | Rejected |
| FFUT | Fidelity Managed Futures ETF | 80.00 | — | — | Nothing measured |
Funds that stack two exposures on one dollar
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSST | Return Stacked U.S. Stocks & Managed Futures ETF | 99.00 | — | 9.00 | Exploratory |
| CTAP | Simplify US Equity PLUS Managed Futures Strategy ETF | 28.00 | — | 33.00 | Exploratory |
| RSSB | Return Stacked Global Stocks & Bonds ETF | 39.00 | — | — | Not scored |
| NTSX | WisdomTree U.S. Efficient Core Fund | 20.00 | — | — | Not scored |
| GDE | WisdomTree Efficient Gold Plus Equity Strategy Fund | 20.00 | — | — | Not scored |
| MATE | Man Active Trend Enhanced ETF | 97.00 | — | — | Exploratory |
| JPFP | JPMorgan Managed Futures Plus ETF | 59.00 | — | — | Nothing measured |
| RSIT | Return Stacked International Stocks & Managed Futures ETF | 98.00 | — | 15.00 | Nothing measured |
| RSSX | Return Stacked U.S. Stocks & Gold/Bitcoin ETF | 67.00 | — | 28.00 | Nothing measured |
| RSSY | Return Stacked U.S. Stocks & Futures Yield ETF | 99.00 | — | — | Nothing measured |
| RSBT | Return Stacked Bonds & Managed Futures ETF | 101.00 | — | — | Nothing measured |
| RSBY | Return Stacked Bonds & Futures Yield ETF | 101.00 | — | — | Nothing measured |
| RSBA | Return Stacked Bonds & Merger Arbitrage ETF | 101.00 | — | — | Nothing measured |
Alternatives
| Ticker | Fund | Fee, basis points a year | Cost, basis points a year | Spread, basis points once | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCHD | Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF | 6.00 | — | — | Rejected |
| VNQ | Vanguard Real Estate ETF | 13.00 | — | — | Rejected |
| TIP | iShares TIPS Bond ETF | 18.00 | 17.92 | — | Rejected |
| SCHP | Schwab U.S. TIPS ETF | — | 2.99 | — | Rejected |