Which returned more over the last year, CWI or DFAI?

In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, CWI returned +17.8% and DFAI +16.3%.

Which is cheaper, CWI or DFAI?

DFAI is cheaper, by 0.12 percentage points a year. That is about $12 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do CWI and DFAI overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 0% of CWI and 0% of DFAI by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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CWI vs DFAI: Differences, Returns & Fees

CWI and DFAI hold 56% of their weight in the same names, and CWI returned +17.8% over the year. Net assets: $2.9bn on Oct 8, 2026 for State Street SPDR MSCI ACWI ex-US ETF, and $17.5bn on Jul 31, 2026 for Dimensional International Core Equity Market ETF.

DFAI costs 0.12 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 1.5 points.

	CWI	DFAI
Expense ratio	0.30%	0.18%
Net assets, CWI as of Oct 8, 2026 and DFAI as of Jul 31, 2026	$2.9bn	$17.5bn
Total return, 1 year	+17.8%	+16.3%
What it tracks	not read by ETFIQ	No index, actively managed
Holdings in common	56%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	16.1%	9.2%
Below its high	3.9%, high on Sep 4, 2026	4.7%, high on Aug 25, 2026

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 8, 2026.

+17.8%

CWI total return, 1 year

+16.3%

DFAI total return, 1 year

0.30%

CWI expense ratio

0.18%

DFAI expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, CWI and DFAI hold 56% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Above 50%, holding both is close to holding one of them twice. Holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 8, 2026.

50%

half

56% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding CWI DFAI

HSBC HOLDINGS PLC 0.93% 1.16%

ROCHE HOLDING AG 0.85% 1.05%

SHELL PLC 0.78% 1.01%

MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL GRO 0.69% 0.76%

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA 0.84% 0.68%

ASTRAZENECA PLC 0.65% 0.81%

NESTLE SA REG 0.65% 0.84%

BHP GROUP LTD 0.60% 0.59%

SIEMENS AG REG 0.65% 0.58%

ALLIANZ SE REG 0.55% 0.59%

ADVANTEST CORP 0.52% 0.54%

COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRAL 0.52% 0.52%

Only in CWI

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFAC 3.38%

SAMSUNG ELECTR GDR REG S 2.64%

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR SP ADR 1.96%

SK HYNIX INC 1.88%

TENCENT HOLDINGS LTD 0.85%

ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD 0.58%

MEDIATEK INC 0.52%

DELTA ELECTRONICS INC 0.46%

Only in DFAI

ASML Holding N.V. 1.63%

Novartis AG 0.67%

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA 0.32%

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. 0.30%

UBS Group AG 0.24%

BHP GROUP LIMITED 0.20%

Banco Santander, S.A. 0.16%

MITSUI E&S Co., Ltd. 0.15%

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On the same fields

CWI

State Street SPDR MSCI ACWI ex-US ETF

DFAI

Dimensional International Core Equity Market ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer State Street Dimensional

What it is Tracks an index Actively managed

Total return, 1 year +17.8% +16.3%

S&P 500 over the same days +17.3% +17.3%

Gap to the S&P 500 +0.6 pts −1.0 pts

Expense ratio 0.30% 0.18%

Already in the S&P 500 0.0% 0.0%

Holdings 1110 3769

Net assets, CWI as of Oct 8, 2026 and DFAI as of Jul 31, 2026 $2.9bn $17.5bn

CWI and DFAI on the fields both publish, as of Oct 9, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

CWI in plain words

CWI tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +17.8% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.30% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 8, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 1,110 positions, with the top ten at 16.1%. It sat 3.9% below its high of Sep 4, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

DFAI in plain words

DFAI is actively managed and tracks no index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +16.3% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.18% a year. By its holdings filed for Jul 31, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 3,769 positions, with the top ten at 9.2%. It sat 4.7% below its high of Aug 25, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, CWI or DFAI?: In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, CWI returned +17.8% and DFAI +16.3%.
Which is cheaper, CWI or DFAI?: DFAI is cheaper, by 0.12 percentage points a year. That is about $12 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do CWI and DFAI overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 0% of CWI and 0% of DFAI by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

CWI vs IEFA CWI vs VEA CWI vs DFIC CWI vs IQLT DFAI vs MFSI DFAI vs IMFL DFAI vs DMXF DFAI vs GSID

CWI on its own →DFAI on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

CWI filings on SEC EDGAR ↗CWI prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗State Street website ↗DFAI filings on SEC EDGAR ↗DFAI prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗Dimensional website ↗

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. A comparison is not a recommendation.

How this is computed

Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.

Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, CWI against DFAI, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/cwi-vs-dfai

Open data

Free to use with attribution for figures ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.