• Table of Contents

Building your own ETF portfolio can optimize returns by combining the cheapest and best-performing ETFs. However, this approach requires more time and maintenance, as it should ideally be rebalanced quarterly.

Rebalancing can be done by allocating new monthly savings, avoiding the need to sell assets and trigger taxable gains. However, if your broker charges trading fees, this method may become more expensive.

For example, Trading 212 offers self-balancing pies, automating investments. However, you still need to monitor index allocations quarterly. For instance, in the MSCI ACWI index, the USA's weight increased from 63 % in early 2024 to 66.7 % in January 2025 due to changing company valuations. These weights fluctuate constantly.

• This approach also suits investors who want to hedge against the USA by reducing their exposure to U.S. stocks.
• Important: Different index providers classify countries differently. For example, Poland and South Korea may be labeled as developed or emerging depending on the index. Mixing ETFs that track different indices can lead to unintended exposures. More details here.

Two ETF strategy

Option 1 (Select US weight) ~90% coverage

• You can pair Xtrackers FTSE All-World ex US UCITS ETF (AWEX - IE000YKHGYN2) 0,15 % TER with any US ETF (S&P 500 or MSCI USA).
  • With 61 % allocation to e.g. SPYL, the weighted TER would be 0,077 %. Note that with swap-based US ETF the performance can be even higher due to tax efficiency.
  • Note that AWEX has been released on April 2026, so the spread is high and AUM is low.

Option 2 (FTSE All-World by Vanguard) ~90% coverage

• Pair Vanguard FTSE Developed World (TER 0.12%) with 90% allocation and Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets (TER 0.22 %) with remaining 10% allocation. Weighted TER is 0.13%, which is much lower than one package.

  • Also, the developed world ETF is constantly outperforming the index, contrary to VWCE. From Feb 2020 to Apr 2026 this split has outperformed the VWCE by 2.56% per JustETF data.

  Subject	Combination	VWCE 5/2026
  TER	0.13%	0.19%
  Stocks	4263	3771

Option 3 (Solactive GBS Global Markets Large & Mid Cap index

~85% coverage)

• Pair Amundi Prime Global (TER 0.05%) with 90% allocation and Amundi Prime Emerging Markets (TER 0.10 %) with 10% allocation. Weighted TER is 0.055%, which is slightly cheaper than WEBN.

Including Small Caps ~99% coverage

• What: MSCI ACWI IMI stands for Investable Market Index.
• In this approach, you add small caps into the game. Small caps are smaller companies valued between 0.25 B to 2 B.
  • Ben Felix does not really recommend small caps (older video).
• Pairing:
  • You can also pair Small Caps with Solactive GBS Global Markets Large & Mid Cap index without overlap.
  • Since FTSE covers already some small caps, that means VWCE/FWIA (or any other FTSE All-World ETF) covers partly the same assets than a Small Cap ETF.
• Small Caps have historically outperformed the large cap companies, since they have more room to grow, but since 2017 the large caps have outperformed due to the megatrends and uncertain world occurrences (pandemic etc.).
• The neutral approach would be adding 15% weight into small caps, but you can flex it anywhere higher or lower per your vision.