Vanguard US Total Mkt Ind ETF

(Market Call Minute.) US indices or ETF’s makes sense, depending on the size of your portfolio. If you are a newer investor or have a smaller amount of capital to invest, this is a great way to do it because of the low cost. If you have enough capital to diversify property, you are better off cherry picking and building a portfolio that is diversified in individual US stocks.

(A Top Pick Dec 18/14. Up 19.16%.) This is the small and mid-cap US market. It is unhedged. The reason it has done so well is because of the currency. Having exposure to the total market versus one sector gives you more exposure to small companies in particular. Historically small and mid-cap markets have outperformed the large cap market.

Continues to look at the US market in a bullish sense. We have low energy costs and low interest rates. What is not to like out there. He is Bullish on the US and sees that there will be wage demands and a little bit of inflation. That recovery is going to continue throughout the economy. This also drills down into mid-caps and small-caps, so it is a much more broad coverage.

(A Top Pick July 22/14. Up 23.93%.) This has everything in it, S&P 500, midcaps, etc. along with small cap stocks that tend to be more domestically oriented.

(A Top Pick Feb 25/14. Up 30.73%.) The US market has done so well in the last little while, partially just because the US stock market has done well. This percent gain has been magnified because of the currency doing so well. This is not sustainable, so don’t expect this again anytime soon.

You can be exposed to the US market without having to pay exchange charges. If VUN-T does not appreciate and the Canadian dollar goes down 10% you still make money.

Total US market. He holds a lot of it. If you want to hedge this, he thinks the Canadian dollar might come back a bit and then lose again. He does not think you should hedge it right now.

Vanguard US Total Market (VUN-T) versus Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets (VEE-T)? You are dealing with apples and oranges. One is emerging markets and the other is total market cap US. If you were buying emerging markets, which he is not, he would be buying the VEE. Regarding this one, there is nothing wrong with it. He has been riding the large cap wave for a couple of years.

(A Top Pick Dec 31/13. Up 22.19%.) He likes the US market probably more than any other market in the world. It gets you out of Canada. It is extremely broad with over 1000 names. There are a lot of small-cap names in it, which generally outperforms large cap stocks.

(A Top Pick Nov 4/13. Up 25.81%.) This holds several thousand stocks. The thesis is that you are getting into smaller cap names, which are somewhat more volatile, but they also have a return premium which, historically over time, is about 2% above large cap.

He uses it in most of his strategies. Gives you large, mid, small caps all around the points. 18 basis points cost. Loves it for core exposure. You just need to know how much equity exposure you want.

(A Top Pick Sept 9/13. Up 27.57%.) He is a big believer in not only getting outside of Canada, but also in getting as broad a diversification as possible. By tilting towards small caps, you are getting a little more return than some other indexes.

Total US market. So this is big cap, mid-cap and small cap. You can buy this either hedged or unhedged. This is the unhedged total US market cap, and VUS-T is the one that is hedged.

Broad US market index. Unhedged because people prefer them these days. 100s of names and 15 basis points cost.

This is a Total Market Index. As the US economy is recovering, the large caps are going to drag up the mid-size, mid-caps and small-caps. He is bullish on the US and sees no reason not to buy this product.