Vident International Equity Strategy ETF

Vident International Equity Strategy ETF (VIDI) tracks the Vident Core International Equity Index. The index is a rules-based mix of stocks from developed and emerging markets outside the US, with 253 holdings as of August 31, 2026. It picks countries and stocks by score, leaning toward cheaper, higher-quality companies, and caps each stock at 0.5% when it rebalances. Its 0.61% expense ratio is well above the 0.14% average of similar funds.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, VIDI returned +24.1%, 1st of 7 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +12.9%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-13.8%); its best was 2025 (+41.9%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 30% (Jun 7, 2021 to Sep 30, 2022), recovered by May 9, 2024.

As of Aug 31, 2026, the fund held 253 securities; the ten largest made up 6.59% of assets.

• Over the three months to Aug 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $912K (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -4.71%, -0.21%, +5.51%.

The fund follows an index run by its own adviser, Vident Asset Management, which also acts as the index provider. The index starts with countries. It screens markets outside the US for investability, meaning how easily foreign investors can trade there, and for reliability, meaning governance, regulation and legal protections. The index usually holds 25 to 40 countries. Each one gets a Country Principles Score. The score weighs how well the country could absorb economic shocks against how attractive its stocks look. An optimizer then sets country weights, with no country above 7.5%.

Within each country, a model scores stocks on 20 factors grouped three ways: valuation (50%), quality, such as profitability and debt (30%), and six-month momentum (20%). The index leaves out stocks that trade mainly in China, Russian and Indian companies without a liquid depositary receipt, companies worth less than $1 billion, and thinly traded shares. The optimizer caps each stock at 0.5% and keeps sector weights close to those of a standard market-value-weighted index.

The index is rebuilt and rebalanced in January and July. The fund aims to hold every stock in the index. Between rebalances, weights drift: as of August 31, 2026, the largest holding, Genius Electronic Optical, was 0.94% of assets. The prospectus reports portfolio turnover of 70%.

• VIDI charges 0.61% a year, versus an average of 0.14% for the similar funds below (7th of 7, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $62 in the first year and $762 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It adds a broad, factor-tilted spread of non-US stocks, including Taiwan and South Korea, to a portfolio that may lean heavily on US companies.

VIDI could add international stocks chosen for value and quality. Its holdings are widely spread: the top 10 made up just 6.59% of assets as of August 31, 2026. It paid a trailing 12-month yield of 3.97% as of October 27, 2026, in quarterly payments. It is still a stock fund and has fallen hard. It lost 32.08% in the first quarter of 2020. Its worst calendar year from 2015 through 2024 was 2018, when it fell 17.32%. In the 2022 bear market it dropped 27.8% and took 17.4 months to recover. Its deepest drop in price data since June 2020 was 30%, and recovery took 19.3 months. Someone who has to sell shares in a stretch like that would lock in losses.

Cost matters too. In the SEC's standard example, $10,000 would pay $762 in costs over 10 years. Past results don't predict future returns, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by closest holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports (no similar fund shares 20% or more of its holdings).