Fund Spotlight: The Defined Duration 20 ETF (ticker: DDXX)

The Defined Duration suite is a three-fund structure designed to help investors build a seamlessly time-aligned asset allocation. The Defined Duration 20 ETF (DDXX) is best suited for long-term financial planning needs—those with 15-year and longer horizons. The fund seeks to achieve growth of capital and stable real returns across rolling 20-year defined durations, serving as the growth-oriented anchor of the Defined Duration framework.

How It Works

DDXX uses a fund-of-funds structure to maintain broad diversification, global equity exposure, and tax-efficient rebalancing. The fund’s methodology explicitly accounts for the defined duration of the global equity market—that is, the time horizon over which equities have historically generated positive real returns after drawdowns.

As global equity markets rise and valuations increase, expected forward returns can decline and time horizons can lengthen. Conversely, lower valuations typically imply shorter defined durations and higher expected returns. Rather than allowing the market’s defined duration to drift, DDXX dynamically rebalances to maintain a consistent 20-year defined duration target.

DDXX holds diversified equity exposure across U.S., foreign developed, and emerging markets, with style tilts that help maintain the desired duration target. For example, if global equities become extended (e.g., the U.S. market trades at a longer implied duration of ~28 years while international and emerging markets trade near ~16), the fund tilts toward less expensive regions or factors such as international small-cap or U.S. value stocks to maintain a balanced global exposure consistent with its 20-year time horizon.

By maintaining a steady time horizon and reducing valuation-driven duration drift, DDXX helps investors align long-term behavior with long-term goals, reducing the temptation to time markets or abandon long-horizon growth allocations prematurely.

Why DDXX Over Other Long-term Options?

DDXX provides a systematic, globally diversified approach to long-term equity exposure, designed to better align the behavioral and temporal characteristics of equity investing with financial planning needs.

While DDXX can serve as a standalone global equity sleeve, it also complements other equity strategies by providing a disciplined, time-weighted anchor for long-term portfolios. Its broad diversification—across regions, styles, and factors—helps mitigate concentration risk and offers a structural approach to managing valuation-driven duration skew.

Traditional equity funds are market-cap weighted, meaning they rebalance to size rather than time. As valuations rise, these funds naturally become longer-duration, higher-risk instruments, introducing uncertainty for long-term financial planning.

DDXX’s time-weighted rebalancing approach maintains a consistent long-term horizon, aligning the asset’s purpose with its investor’s goals all the while remaining sensitive to the imbalances that can increase sequence of returns risk and behavioral biases.

Use Cases for DDXX

DDXX is designed for long-duration financial planning and growth objectives, including:

• Retirement and wealth accumulation portfolios with 15+ year horizons.
• Multi-generational planning and estate strategies.
• Long-term endowment or foundation portfolios seeking durable real growth.
• Tax-sensitive investors, leveraging the fund’s tax-efficient fund-of-funds structure in both taxable and tax-deferred accounts.
• Investors concerned with valuation risk, who want a systematic approach to managing time horizon consistency without giving up long-term equity exposure.
• Investors looking to replace target date funds and other less customizable retirement plan options.

To learn more about DDXX please see here.

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