With some fanfare, Vanguard launched nine new ETFs based on S&P indexes last week. When I first looked at the ticker symbols, I see a mess. All nine funds use a combination of V, I, O, and G. They are VOO, VOOV, VOOG, IVOO, IVOV, IVOG, VIOO, VIOV, and VIOG.
After staring at them for a while, I finally got it. The first V is Roman numeral five. "IV" is Roman numeral four; "VI" is six. "O" is zero. The last V and G stand for Value or Growth.
Therefore VOO is "500". VOOV is "500 Value". IVOV should be IVOOV for "400 Value" but they only want to use four letters so they dropped an O.
| Ticker | ETF |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 |
| VOOV | Vanguard S&P 500 Value |
| VOOG | Vanguard S&P 500 Growth |
| IVOO | Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 |
| IVOV | Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value |
| IVOG | Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth |
| VIOO | Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 |
| VIOV | Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Value |
| VIOG | Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Growth |
Of these new ETFs, the only one I’m interested in is VIOV, Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF. The existing Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (ticker VBR) follows the MSCI US Small Cap 1750 Index. Stocks in VBR are not as small as those in the S&P SmallCap 600 Value Index. Right now I use iShares S&P 600 Value Index ETF (ticker IJS) for my small cap value allocation.
| VBR | IJS | |
| Median Market Capitalization | $1.4 billion | $534 million |
| 30-day SEC yield | 2.38% | 1.23% |
| Expense Ratio | 0.14% | 0.25% |
Because the new Vanguard ETF VIOV follows the same index as IJS at a somewhat lower expense ratio (0.20% versus 0.25%), I will switch over from IJS to VIOV after it gains more traction. I also expect the expense ratio on the Vanguard ETF to come down as the size of the fund becomes larger.
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Jay says
What ever happened to Vanguard’s TIPS ETF? Seems like quite a while ago that we heard about a filing for it, but it hasn’t shown up.
Harry Sit says
@Jay – I think they abandoned it for business and/or regulatory reasons. New ETFs come onto the market a few months after filing with the SEC. Vanguard said they filed for a TIPS ETF at least two years ago. I guess Vanguard got some pushback from the SEC, which they are not willing to fix. Schwab launched their TIPS ETF a short a while ago and Schwab just got into the ETF business last year. That’s why I think if Vanguard really wants to offer a TIPS ETF, they can, but they chose not to.