I haven’t looked into the details of how SPSK differs from AMAPX, but you can tell from the numbers there is some difference. It’s not to say that SPSK would fare worse than AMAPX longer term, but as I had already invested in the Amana fund I was holding off to see if there’s any apparent advantage of the new one to diversify by buying into it.
Unfortunately we don’t have a very long term (20+ year) view of Sukuk fund performance, but it is a promising development that we have access to those options in the US that previously didn’t. I don’t see a lost year where the share value decline equals or is slightly less than cash when factoring dividends to be a big deal. You can take a look at how much AMAPX dipped in response to the initial Covid panic and how quickly it recovered. How would it have looked after Lehman collapsed, or after 9/11, or after the dot com bust, etc? We will never know, but inshaAllah those funds withstand the test of time and prove to be a worthwhile diversification, so I’m choosing to invest in them as a proxy to what I can’t do (e.g. invest in bonds).