A look at BetaShares GEAR and the MVB ETF
BetaShares GEAR Fund is an internally geared fund, investing in the largest 200 companies on the ASX, by market capitalisation.
The VanEck MVB ETF provides focused exposure to Australia’s largest industry, the banking sector. This is a low-cost way to invest in the Australian banking industry through a single fund.
Learn more about the MVB ETF with our full analysis page. Get our MVB review.
So where do we start analysing MVB and GEAR? In addition to using our years of experience analysing ETFs to ‘get a feel’ for the ETF, there are simple checks and balances our team uses to compare similar ETFs.
The first is fees. We score ETFs based on their management fees and costs and we take into account the spread. We’ll then compare these ‘all in’ fees and costs across sectors, strategy types and ETF providers.
We’ll keep it easy and just study the fees. Based on our data for December 2021, the GEAR ETF has a management expense ratio (MER) of 0.80% while the MVB ETF’s yearly fee was 0.28%. Therefore, MVB wins on this one. That said, a more useful metric to know is the fee quartiles that these ETFs find themselves in (note: quartile 1 is best). For example, any ETF which has a fee below 0.3% would be considered in our first (best) quartile.
How do they perform?
Typically, we want to a see ETFs with a three-year track record of solid performance. Put another way, when an ETF achieves a three year track record, we score it positively than might otherwise be the case. That said, there are exceptions to this rule of thumb. Also, remember that it’s hard to compare an ETF with a hedge fund strategy against other ETFs. Why? Hedge fund ETFs often use inverse or ‘opposite’ strategies which means that they’re designed to move in an opposite direction to the market. Nevertheless, we can see that both ETFs met their three-year performance milestone.
There’s one more important thing to consider: the company that starts and runs the ETF. They are in charge of operating the ETF on the ASX. The provider of the GEAR fund is BetaShares. Betashares ranks highly for our scores of ETF providers and issuers in Australia. We believe BetaShares is one of the leading providers of index and non-index style products to retail investors in Australia. Meanwhile, the company responsible for MVB is Vaneck. VanEck ranks highly for our scores of ETF providers and issuers in Australia. Our team considers VanEck to be one of Australia’s leading providers of specialised ETFs and funds for retail investors and advisers.
Next steps
Did you know we have free reports? View our ASX GEAR review and ASX MVB review today.
In summary, the GEAR ETF rates higher for our internal scoring methodology but not by much compared to MVB.
Please, keep in mind, there is much more to selecting a good ETF. That’s why you should now use these skills to find the best ETF you can. If you want the name of our team’s top ETF pick for 2022, keep reading…
