Which returned more over the last year, DFAE or VWO?

In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, DFAE returned +26.0% and VWO +12.1%.

Which is cheaper, DFAE or VWO?

VWO is cheaper, by 0.23 percentage points a year. That is about $23 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do DFAE and VWO overlap with the S&P 500?

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

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DFAE vs VWO: Differences, Returns & Fees

DFAE and VWO hold 67% of their weight in the same names, and DFAE returned +26.0% over the year. Net assets: $9.5bn on Jul 31, 2026 for Dimensional Emerging Core Equity Market ETF, and $125.4bn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF.

VWO costs 0.23 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 13.9 points; VWO is 17.1 times larger.

	DFAE	VWO
Expense ratio	0.29%	0.06%
Net assets, as of Jul 31, 2026	$9.5bn	$162.0bn
Total return, 1 year	+26.0%	+12.1%
What it tracks	No index, actively managed	FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index
Holdings in common	67%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	30.5%	28.9%
Below its high	5.0%, high on Jun 22, 2026

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

+26.0%

DFAE total return, 1 year

+12.1%

VWO total return, 1 year

0.29%

DFAE expense ratio

0.06%

VWO expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, DFAE and VWO hold 67% 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 Aug 31, 2026.

50%

half

67% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding DFAE VWO

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited 13.19% 14.73%

Tencent Holdings Limited 2.57% 2.90%

Alibaba Group Holding Limited 1.20% 2.19%

MediaTek Inc. 0.97% 1.47%

HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY CO., LTD. 0.79% 0.78%

CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK CORPORATION 0.77% 0.86%

DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC. 0.62% 0.90%

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA LIMITED 0.46% 0.62%

BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED 0.44% 0.47%

XIAOMI CORPORATION 0.41% 0.49%

RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED 0.40% 0.73%

PDD Holdings Inc. 0.39% 0.52%

Only in DFAE

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 5.17%

SK hynix Inc. 4.54%

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 0.67%

ICICI BANK LIMITED 0.45%

Alibaba Group Holding Limited 0.39%

HDFC BANK LIMITED 0.35%

SAMSUNG ELECTRO-MECHANICS CO.,LTD 0.33%

HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY 0.31%

Only in VWO

SLCMT1142 3.18%

MKTLIQ 1.21%

Bajaj Finance Ltd 0.24%

Baidu Inc 0.21%

DELTA ELECTRONICS THAI-FORGN 0.17%

Shriram Finance Ltd 0.13%

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd 0.13%

PTT PCL/FOREIGN 0.12%

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On the same fields

DFAE

Dimensional Emerging Core Equity Market ETF

VWO

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer Dimensional Vanguard

What it is Actively managed Tracks an index of Emerging markets

Total return, 1 year +26.0% +12.1%

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

Gap to the S&P 500 +8.8 pts −5.1 pts

Expense ratio 0.29% 0.06%

Already in the S&P 500 0.0% 0.0%

Holdings 6272 6356

Net assets, DFAE as of Jul 31, 2026 and VWO as of Sep 30, 2026 $9.5bn $125.4bn

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

DFAE in plain words

DFAE is actively managed and tracks no index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +26.0% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.29% 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 6,272 positions, with the top ten at 30.5%. It sat 5.0% below its high of Jun 22, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

VWO in plain words

VWO tracks an index of Emerging markets. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +12.1% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.06% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer as of Aug 31, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 6,356 positions, with the top ten at 28.9%.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, DFAE or VWO?: In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, DFAE returned +26.0% and VWO +12.1%.
Which is cheaper, DFAE or VWO?: VWO is cheaper, by 0.23 percentage points a year. That is about $23 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do DFAE and VWO overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 0% of DFAE and 0% of VWO by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

DFAE vs IEMG DFAE vs EEMV CGNG vs DFAE DFAE vs PXH FNDE vs VWO DFEM vs VWO EEM vs VWO VWO vs XCEM

DFAE on its own →VWO on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

DFAE filings on SEC EDGAR ↗DFAE prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗Dimensional website ↗VWO filings on SEC EDGAR ↗VWO prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗Vanguard page for VWO ↗

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, DFAE against VWO, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/dfae-vs-vwo

Open data

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