Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF

Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from Vanguard, traded under the ticker VEA (ISIN US9219438580). In a single purchase you get a diversified basket of holdings rather than a stake in just one business. 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 Spliced Developed ex US Index index (passive investing): it tracks the market rather than relying on a manager, keeping running costs down, and its largest holdings include Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., SK hynix Inc and ASML Holding NV. With about 3860 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 13.3%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names. By geography it is weighted towards ~19% Japan, ~10.5% Canada and ~10.2% United Kingdom. Its heaviest sectors are ~21.9% Financials and ~17.4% Industrials. 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 0.03% a year — about €3 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 17% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. Like any investment, it can lose value as well as gain, and what it did before does not predict what it will do next. (Fund data sourced from Vanguard.)