Monday, August 25, 2025

Index Funds Go Head to Head

When you’re balancing VTI vs. VOO, you’re most likely taking a look at placing cash into an index fund. That’s typically going to be determination. Index funds assist you to diversify your portfolio even in case you don’t have a lot to take a position, and even funding professionals usually fail to choose shares that beat the index efficiency.

However which of those funds do you have to select? Let’s begin with the fundamentals.

VTI vs VOO: By the Numbers

VTI vs VOO - By the Numbers
VTI VOO
Full Identify Vanguard Complete Inventory Market ETF Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
Index Tracked CRSP U.S. Complete Market Index S&P 500 Index
Belongings Below Administration* $318.6 billion $339.7 billion
Variety of Holdings 3839 507
Expense Ratio 0.03% 0.03%
Dividend Yield* 1.54% 1.56%
Issuer Vanguard  Vanguard 

* As of Sept. 2023

5-Yr Efficiency

VOO - VTI Five year performance chart

Supply: Barchat

VTI vs VOO: What’s the Distinction?

A very powerful distinction between VTI and VOO is that every fund tracks a distinct index:

  • VTI tracks the CRSP U.S. Complete Market index. The CRSP U.S. Complete Market index is an index of just about 4000 firms headquartered within the US, from mega to micro capitalization. This makes the index illustration of your entire US inventory market, not simply the most important firms.
  • VOO tracks the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is an index of the five hundred high largest firms within the US.

These indices and the ETFs that monitor them are market cap weighted. That implies that they offer bigger firms a heavier weight.

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VTI vs VOO: Sector Publicity

VTI and VOO use barely totally different phrases to interrupt down their sector publicity.

VTI Sector Breakdown

Sector Weight
Data Know-how 30.20%
Client Discretionary 14.40%
Industrials 13.00%
Well being Care 12.60%
Financials 10.30%
Client Staples 5.10%
Power 4.60%
Actual Property 2.90%
Utilities 2.70%
Telecommunication 2.20%
Fundamental Supplies 2.00%

VOO Sector Breakdown

Sector Weight
Know-how 28.20%
Well being Care 13.20%
Financials 12.40%
Client Discretionary 10.60%
Communication Providers 8.80%
Industrials 8.40%
Client Staples 6.60%
Power 4.40%
Actual Property 2.50%
Fundamental Supplies 2.50%
Utilities 2.40%

One factor that instantly stands out in these breakdowns is that each VTI and VOO are closely weighted towards IT (tech & communication) particularly VOO, reflecting the present giant market capitalization of those sectors within the US inventory market.

  • VTI tracks a bigger variety of firms from a wider vary of company sizes. It’s weighted extra closely towards the patron and industrial sectors, which comprise extra medium and small-size firms. The bigger variety of holdings and better variation within the firms’ profiles make it extra diversified.
  • VOO tracks a smaller variety of firms with a barely higher focus in tech. It provides a better half to healthcare and financials, which are typically dominated by giant firms (generally known as Huge Banks and Huge Pharma).

Neither of those choices is basically higher or worse. They supply publicity to barely totally different sectors of the market, and that may result in totally different efficiency traits.

VTI vs VOO: The Similarities

VTI and VOO have quite a bit in widespread. They’re each extraordinarily giant ETFs. Each funds are managed by Vanguard, which has a popularity for offering low-cost funds.

When you’re in search of giant, extremely liquid funds with credible administration, each of those ETFs will go your display.

There are additionally much less apparent similarities, explaining the very comparable efficiency charts stemming from three primary information.

  • As market cap-weighted indexes, they each give a predominant house to mega-caps price trillions of {dollars}, most of them tech firms.
  • A whole lot of the efficiency of the CRSP U.S. Complete Market Index is pushed by the highest largest holdings, that are all a part of the S&P 500.
  • The inventory market worth of mid and small-cap shares tends to maneuver in unison with larger-cap shares.

What does that imply in observe? Let’s take a look at the ten largest holdings of VTI and VOO.

Prime Holdings: VTI vs VOO

The highest holdings of each indexes are an identical for the primary ninth largest holdings, solely in a barely totally different order. It consists of:

  • Apple Inc.
  • Microsoft Corp.
  • Amazon.com Inc.
  • NVIDIA Corp.
  • Alphabet Inc. Class A
  • Alphabet Inc. Class C
  • Tesla
  • Fb Inc. Class A
  • Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B

So the one distinction among the many high 10 holdings is that VTI incorporates insurance coverage and healthcare inventory UnitedHealth Group whereas VOO incorporates oil & gasoline Exxon Mobil Corp.

The identical could be true even when wanting on the subsequent 10 holdings for every fund. The checklist is an identical for ninth of them, with a really comparable order:

  • Exxon Mobil Corp or UnitedHealth Group
  • Eli Lilly & Co.
  • JPMorgan Chase & Co.
  • Visa Inc. Class A
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • Broadcom Inc.
  • Procter & Gamble Co.
  • MasterCard Inc Class A
  • House Depot

The distinction is within the twentieth largest holdings: pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co Inc. for VTI and vitality firm Chevron Corp. for VOO.

The one actual distinction is for the highest holdings of VTI to be barely much less of the entire ETF, making house for the smaller holdings of smaller firms.

Which Is Finest for You?

Each VTI and VOO are good decisions for an investor who’s in search of a high quality diversified index fund. Each are among the many largest and most outstanding ETFs within the nation, each are extremely liquid, they usually have very comparable monitor information. In addition they have the identical low charge of 0.03%.

Your selection might be based mostly on what you’re in search of in an funding.

  • VTI is giving some publicity to firms with a smaller market capitalization. This offers a barely totally different profile when wanting on the sector foundation, giving extra significance to the commercial and shopper sectors.
  • VOO is a extra aggressive, much less diversified fund centered on main tech firms. This offers it higher potential for positive factors in bull market durations but additionally opens up the potential of vital losses in a bear market.

The way you see the markets makes a distinction: in case you assume markets are going to maintain favoring giant caps, then you’ll want an index centered solely on them. When you imagine that smaller firms may be capable of outperform, you’ll want an index in a position to rebalance towards them and enhance their weight into the index whereas their market capitalization grows.

If you’re weighing VTI vs VOO and also you’re having hassle making up your thoughts, contemplate allocating a portion of your portfolio to every fund. Holding a number of ETFs in your portfolio can present the perfect of each worlds.

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