The Vanguard ETF List: How to Put Together the Portfolio You Want

Image source: Vanguard Group.

Exchange-traded funds are extremely popular among investors, giving you the ability to buy and sell during the trading day while retaining the diversification that funds offer. In particular, the Vanguard Group has developed a reputation for being a low-cost provider of funds, and the company jumped into the ETF industry and found success using its usual strategy of minimizing expenses. Below, you'll find the complete list of all Vanguard ETFs, including those that concentrate on stocks, bonds, and other types of investments. You'll also see which ones stand out from the crowd and might deserve a place in your portfolio.

The definitive Vanguard ETF List

Here are all of Vanguard's ETFs:

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Data source: Vanguard Group.

As you can see, the bulk of Vanguard's ETFs have extremely low expense ratios around 0.1%. Some ETFs that focus on international stocks or other market niches have somewhat higher expenses, while those that track the most popular indexes tend to be cheaper. Overall, though, Vanguard sets the standard for low costs, and even though some ETFs from other providers are slightly less expensive, it's hard to find areas in which Vanguard looks particularly pricey compared to its competition.

One of the key benefits that Vanguard customers enjoy is that if you have a brokerage account at Vanguard, you can buy and sell the company's ETFs at no commission. There are some limitations on this feature designed to discourage short-term traders, but if you avoid buying and selling the same Vanguard ETF more than 25 times during a 12-month period, then you'll avoid any restrictions on future transactions.

Vanguard ETF strategies

From the list above, you can narrow down the large number of selections in ways that suit your particular investing needs. Strategies can be as simple or complex as you choose.

For instance, if you just want to get broad-based exposure to asset classes, then a small selection of the least expensive funds will typically do the trick. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VTI) gives you a combination of large, mid-sized, and small company stocks in a single fund, and its 0.05% expense ratio means you'll pay just $5 in annual costs for every $10,000 you invest. Similarly, the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (NYSEMKT: BND) gives you a combination of government, asset-backed, and corporate bonds, all for 0.06%.

At the other end of the spectrum, Vanguard has options to let you home in on particular types of narrowly defined investments. The sector ETFs let you concentrate on specific industry groups, such as energy and technology. You can use them either by themselves or as supplements in order to give your portfolio greater weighting to one industry than a broad-market index fund would provide. Meanwhile, ETFs that specialize in various subclasses of bonds let you tailor your overall portfolio to your particular needs.

Finally, Vanguard hasn't done much with specialty ETFs, but one area in which you can find some great funds is in the dividend investing realm. Both the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEMKT: VIG) and the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (NYSEMKT: VYM) are designed for income investors, though they follow slightly different strategies. The Dividend Appreciation fund looks for companies that have track records of raising their dividends, with less emphasis on current yield. The High Dividend Yield ETF looks first and foremost at yield, with dividend growth playing a secondary role. Either or both funds can be useful parts of your portfolio if you're looking to maximize income.

All in all, the Vanguard ETF list offers an impressive set of exchange-traded funds. Nearly every investor can find a mix of these ETFs that will produce the market exposure they want for their investment portfolios.

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