Vanguard U.S. Value Factor ETF

What this fund is

Vanguard U.S. Value Factor ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from Vanguard, traded under the ticker VFVA (ISIN US9219358051). It lets you buy a basket of holdings in a single trade, spreading your money across them rather than one company. In plain terms it is about owning small slices of companies, so you share in their growth when they do well — and their falls when they don't, spread across its target market. It follows the Russell 3000 Index index (passive investing): it tracks the market rather than relying on a manager, keeping running costs down, and its largest holdings include EOG Resources Inc., AT&T Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co..

It holds around 636 positions (the ten largest ≈ 9.1%), spreading risk so no single holding decides your outcome. Its biggest country exposures are ~91.7% United States, ~2.4% Ireland and ~2.2% Bermuda. Its heaviest sectors are ~25.8% Financials and ~14.6% Health Care. It is commonly used to tilt a portfolio towards one market, usually alongside broader, more global funds rather than on its own. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.13% a year — about €13 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund.

It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in the United States and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 15.1% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from Vanguard.)