Vanguard Ultra-Short Bond ETF

What this fund is

Vanguard Ultra-Short Bond ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from Vanguard, traded under the ticker VUSB (ISIN US92203C3034). 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 very short-term, cash-like instruments, aimed at protecting your money and earning a little interest rather than growing it, spread across its target market. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bellwethers: 1 Year Index index — the passive, low-cost approach, and its largest holdings include United States Treasury Bill, United States Treasury Note/Bond and PNC Financial Services Group Inc..

Spread across roughly 1291 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 9.8%), no one position makes or breaks the fund. Its biggest country exposures are ~102.5% United States and ~0.9% Australia. By industry it concentrates most in ~34.3% Financials and ~6.6% Government. Funds like this are often used as the steadier, lower-swing part of a portfolio — the ballast that cushions the ups and downs of shares. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.1% a year — about €10 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 0.7% 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.)