There are plenty of choices in the Index category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Vanguard Total World Stock Index Investor . VTWSX has no Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, but we have been able to look into other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VTWSX. The Vanguard Total World Stock Index Investor made its debut in June of 2008 and VTWSX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.72 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Christine D. Franquin is the fund's current manager and has held that role since February of 2013.
Performance
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 4.37%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.76%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.
When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 10.8% compared to the category average of 0.74%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment.
Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.94, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -3.33. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, VTWSX is a no load fund and it has an expense ratio of 0.19%.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $3,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $1.
Bottom Line
For additional information on the Index area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into VTWSX too for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.
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Is Vanguard Total World Stock Index Investor (VTWSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
There are plenty of choices in the Index category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Vanguard Total World Stock Index Investor . VTWSX has no Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, but we have been able to look into other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VTWSX. The Vanguard Total World Stock Index Investor made its debut in June of 2008 and VTWSX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.72 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Christine D. Franquin is the fund's current manager and has held that role since February of 2013.
Performance
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 4.37%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.76%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.
When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 10.8% compared to the category average of 0.74%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment.
Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.94, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -3.33. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, VTWSX is a no load fund and it has an expense ratio of 0.19%.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $3,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $1.
Bottom Line
For additional information on the Index area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into VTWSX too for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.