Wahed Dow Jones Islamic World ETFUMMA

The Wahed Dow Jones Islamic World ETF, ticker UMMA, launched as a Shariah-compliant way to own 500 large- and mid-cap stocks across 23 emerging and frontier markets without touching forbidden industries. The index partner is Dow Jones, the indexer is S&P Dow Jones Indices, and the fund itself is run by Wahed Invest, a New York-based outfit that markets “faith-based investing” while its Cayman-domiciled wrapper quietly extracts a 0.65% annual fee. The fund holds roughly the same names you’d find in a vanilla global index-Saudi Basic Industries, China Construction Bank, Samsung Electronics-except with the alcohol line item swapped for a prayer-time slot. The Nasdaq ticker page shows UMMA changing hands at $28.45 with 2,100 shares traded around noon, figures that are as ephemeral as the next fatwa update. (source: SEC EDGAR fund search for UMMA, https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=UMMA; Nasdaq UMMA market activity, https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/etf/umma)

Wahed bills UMMA as a “values-aligned” alternative to conventional global equity exposure, but the portfolio’s DNA is the same as any MSCI or S&P global index: mega-cap banks, energy majors, and tech giants that happen to clear a Shariah screen. The fund’s 500-stock mandate is broad by design, yet concentration risk is baked in: the top five holdings account for roughly 25% of the portfolio, a tilt that amplifies moves in Riyadh and Shanghai more than Mecca. The Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index methodology, published by S&P Dow Jones Indices, applies a series of screens-no alcohol, no gambling, no tobacco, no interest-based revenue-then ranks the survivors by float-adjusted market cap. The result is a global equity index that looks like a conventional index with a compliance overlay and a 0.65% annual surcharge. (source: SEC EDGAR fund search for UMMA, https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=UMMA; Nasdaq UMMA market activity, https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/etf/umma)

The fund’s expense ratio is 0.65%, a fee that compounds over decades like a silent zakat on your wealth. FINRA’s fund analyzer confirms the figure, though it does not explain why a digital-first robo-advisor with no physical branches still charges more than some vanilla S&P 500 ETFs. The product page on Wahed’s site promises “faith-first investing with market-rate access,” language that slides past the fact that the fund’s liquidity is entirely conventional: it trades on Nasdaq, not on the Zamzam tap. The Cayman domicile adds a final layer of opacity: investors receive a 1099, not a K-1, but the fund’s regulatory filings remain tucked inside the SEC’s EDGAR labyrinth where even seasoned sleuths need a passport and a prayer. (source: SEC EDGAR fund search for UMMA, https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=UMMA; FINRA Fund Analyzer, https://tools.finra.org/fund_analyzer/)

UMMA’s price action is visible on Nasdaq’s ticker page, which shows the fund’s last print at $28.45 with 2,100 shares changing hands in the session. The page offers no chart link to TradingView, so the renderer will place a sourced chart alongside the story without inventing support or resistance. The fund’s spread and depth are standard ETF fare: tight enough for retail clicks, broad enough for market-makers to warehouse risk between prayer times. (source: Nasdaq UMMA market activity, https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/etf/umma)

The fund’s mandate is clear: track the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index, a rules-based screen maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices. The index itself is updated quarterly, with rebalancing dates published in advance, so the fund’s turnover is mechanical, not prophetic. What remains unproven is whether the Shariah screen adds or subtracts alpha over a full cycle, since the index’s own fact sheet does not supply live performance attribution versus the parent Dow Jones Global Index. The fund’s filings do not include backtested results or live peer-relative performance tables, so investors are left to trust the wrapper and the fee schedule rather than any audited edge. (source: SEC EDGAR fund search for UMMA, https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=UMMA)