Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF

Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF (DFSV) is an actively managed fund that owns about 1,000 small US companies whose shares look cheap compared with their book value. It does not track an index. Instead, Dimensional weights stocks by company size and leans toward the smallest, cheapest and more profitable firms. Its yearly fee is 0.30%, which is the highest among the similar funds it is compared with here. Their average is 0.19%.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, DFSV returned +23.6%, 4th of 9 among similar funds.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2024 (+7.1%); its best was 2023 (+19.2%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 28% (Nov 25, 2024 to Apr 8, 2025), recovered by Dec 10, 2025.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 997 securities; the ten largest made up 6.88% of assets. It also reported 5.71% in a money-market fund, most likely cash collateral from lending out shares rather than uninvested money.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors added a net $294.0M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.09%, +3.23%, +2.26%.

Dimensional Fund Advisors manages DFSV directly instead of copying an index. It starts with small US companies. These are firms in the bottom 10% of total market value, or smaller than the 1,000th-largest US company, whichever line is higher. As of December 31, 2025, that meant a market value below about $16.8 billion. At least 80% of net assets go to these companies. Within that group, the fund looks for value stocks. These are companies with a low share price relative to their book value, which is roughly what the balance sheet says the company is worth. Dimensional may also check price-to-earnings and price-to-cash-flow ratios.

Larger companies get bigger slices, but the fund can tilt toward smaller, cheaper or more profitable firms. It can also trim, add to or skip a stock based on short-term signals such as price momentum. The result is very spread out. As of July 31, 2026, it held 997 stocks, and the top 10 made up just 6.88%. The largest were Invesco, HF Sinclair and BorgWarner, at about 0.75% each.

Because it follows no index, it has no set rebalancing date. Dimensional trades flexibly to keep costs down, and turnover was 9%. The fund uses futures to manage cash coming in and going out, and it lends securities to earn extra income. Lending carries the risk that a borrower fails to return them.

• DFSV charges 0.3% a year, versus an average of 0.19% for the similar funds below (9th of 9, cheapest first).
• Of that, 0.28% is the management fee; the rest covers other fund expenses.
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $31 in the first year and $381 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

Small-cap value stocks swing more than the broad market, and DFSV has fallen as much as 28%, so it fits better as a smaller tilt beside a core fund than as the foundation.

DFSV adds smaller, cheaper US companies that make up only a sliver of a large-company index fund. Its record is short. It launched in February 2022, and its price history starts after the 2022 bear market, so it has no record from 2008, 2020 or 2022. Every full calendar year has been positive, and the weakest was 7.27% in 2024. Even so, it fell 28% from November 25, 2024 to April 8, 2025. It did not recover until December 10, 2025, about eight months later. Selling shares to cover spending during that drop would have locked in losses. The yield was a modest 1.41% as of October 27, 2026, paid quarterly. Its 0.30% fee is the highest in its comparison group. Past results don't predict future ones, and a plan should weigh the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports.