Which returned more over the last year, FEX or IWS?

In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FEX returned +17.6% and IWS +20.2%.

Which is cheaper, FEX or IWS?

IWS is cheaper, by 0.34 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $34. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do FEX and IWS overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 86% of FEX and 66% of IWS by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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FEX vs IWS: how they differ

FEX and IWS hold 41% of their weight in the same names, and IWS returned +20.2% over the year. First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund and iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF.

IWS costs 0.34 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 2.6 points; IWS is 9.7 times larger.

	FEX	IWS
Expense ratio	0.57%	0.23%
Net assets	$1.6bn	$15.3bn
Total return, 1 year	+17.6%	+20.2%
Holdings in common	41%
Nasdaq-100, total return, 1 year	+23.6%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	5.0%	7.0%
Below its high	4.1%, high on Aug 14, 2026	4.6%, high on Aug 14, 2026

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 8, 2026 and Oct 9, 2026.

+17.6%

FEX total return, 1 year

+20.2%

IWS total return, 1 year

0.57%

FEX expense ratio

0.23%

IWS expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, FEX and IWS hold 41% 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 Oct 8, 2026 and Oct 9, 2026.

50%

half

41% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding FEX IWS

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company 0.50% 0.94%

PayPal Holdings, Inc. 0.46% 0.47%

Devon Energy Corporation 0.45% 0.55%

The Allstate Corporation 0.45% 0.59%

Occidental Petroleum Corporation 0.47% 0.44%

American International Group, Inc. 0.45% 0.41%

Illumina, Inc. 0.44% 0.40%

Marathon Petroleum Corporation 0.40% 0.67%

Phillips 66 0.38% 1.06%

Nucor Corporation 0.37% 0.54%

Consolidated Edison, Inc. 0.36% 0.39%

Diamondback Energy, Inc. 0.36% 0.39%

Only in FEX

Dell Technologies Inc. (Class C) 0.47%

Fortinet, Inc. 0.47%

Snowflake Inc. (Class A) 0.47%

Arista Networks, Inc. 0.46%

ConocoPhillips 0.46%

Datadog, Inc. (Class A) 0.46%

EOG Resources, Inc. 0.46%

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Class B) 0.45%

Only in IWS

DIGITAL REALTY TRUST REIT 0.65%

REALTY INCOME REIT 0.51%

VYLOR 0.49%

ENTERGY CORP 0.48%

FORD MOTOR CO 0.48%

HUMANA 0.46%

VIVMARK RESIDENTIAL 0.46%

FLEX LTD 0.42%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

FEX

First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund

IWS

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer First Trust iShares

What it is Tracks an index Tracks an index

Total return, 1 year +17.6% +20.2%

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

Gap to the S&P 500 +0.4 pts +3.0 pts

Expense ratio 0.57% 0.23%

Already in the S&P 500 85.6% 66.1%

Holdings 375 719

Net assets $1.6bn $15.3bn

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

FEX in plain words

FEX tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +17.6% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500 and +23.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.57% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 9, 2026, 86% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 375 positions, with the top ten at 5.0%. It sat 4.1% below its high of Aug 14, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

IWS in plain words

IWS tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +20.2% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500 and +23.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.23% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 8, 2026, 66% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 719 positions, with the top ten at 7.0%. It sat 4.6% below its high of Aug 14, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, FEX or IWS?: In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FEX returned +17.6% and IWS +20.2%.
Which is cheaper, FEX or IWS?: IWS is cheaper, by 0.34 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $34. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do FEX and IWS overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 86% of FEX and 66% of IWS by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

FEX vs SDY FEX vs NOBL FEX vs VOE FEX vs IJJ IWS vs REGL ILCV vs IWS FTA vs IWS IWS vs RWK

FEX on its own →IWS on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

FEX filings on SEC EDGAR ↗FEX prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗First Trust page for FEX ↗IWS filings on SEC EDGAR ↗IWS prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗iShares page for IWS ↗

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

How this is computed

Weight overlap is an ETFIQ calculation: for every security both funds hold, the smaller of the two weights, summed.

Cite this page

ETFIQ, FEX against IWS, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/fex-vs-iws

Open data

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