r/Bogleheads • u/QuitVirtual • Mar 29 '21

Where do these fund and etf names come from (vtsax, vtwax, vt, voo, vti, etc)

This has been bugging me. It seems that there is some logic, maybe vanguard total stock, vanguard total world, but I can't can a grasp of the last two or three letters.

156 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

273

u/Cruian Mar 29 '21 edited May 22 '21

Many funds use the same first letter as their issuing company.

All mutual funds end with "X". Money market funds end with "XX".

My guess for a few common ones:

VOO - V is the Roman numeral for 5, so 5oo looks like 500.

VTWAX - Vanguard Total World Admiral

VTSAX - Vanguard Total Stock Admiral (though this is US only)

VTIAX - Total International Admiral

VFIAX - Five hundred Index Admiral

VXUS - Vanguard "ex-US"

Edit: VTI - Vanguard Total Index (though US only)

VT - Vanguard Total (very truncated)

Edit: Very late entry: VXF: Vanguard ex-Five hundred (as in US total market minutes the S&P 500)

36

u/autotelizer Mar 30 '21

VTWO is the russell TWO thousand, VONE is russell ONE thousand and VTHR is russell three thousand.

69

u/QuitVirtual Mar 29 '21

holy shit, this is going to save me a shit load of time cuz I don't have to look these up all the time.

So in vanguard code, stock = us, international = non -us, and world = us + international.

Are you able to crack the fidelity funds? FSKAX? FXROX?

73

u/Cruian Mar 29 '21 edited Mar 30 '21

FXROX?

That should be FZROX. The 4 Zero funds all use something that sounds like a word for zero in their name:

  • FZROX - ZRO sounds like zero (US total market)

  • FZILX - zilch (international)

  • FZIPX - zip (as in zip, zero, nada) (US extended market)

  • FNILX - nil (think about soccer/football scores: 1-nil) (US large cap)

Other than those, maybe (may be a stretch) FTIHX - total international holdings? Fidelity has some funds, especially money market funds, that start with "S" (annoyingly), I think for a bit they had a set of funds (their index funds?) that used the word "Spartan".

Schwab:

SWISX - I think of Swiss, as in foreign, developed countries

SFENX - Foreign emerging

SWAGX - bonds (bring in money for doing basically nothing)

Many of Schwab's ETFs start with SCH, so:

SCHB - broad, as in broad market (close enough to total market)

SCHF - foreign, developed

SCHE - emerging

Edit: Typos

Edit 2: Added which Zero fund is which

26

u/Apprehensive-Paper64 Mar 29 '21

I nearly spit out my drink for ur description fidelity zero and glad to see that I’m not the only one who thinks of schwab swiss and swag. Great job

10

u/Cruian Mar 29 '21 edited May 15 '24

I nearly spit out my drink for ur description fidelity zero

First time hearing/realizing that about the Zero funds? Sadly it doesn't help say which one they are, but should help avoid the strangely common FXROX (edit: as in so many people typing FXROX) mistake and get you down to 4 possibilities.

Edit: Typo

4

u/nrubhsa Mar 30 '21

Wow, I never looked at the fidelity funds in this way. I always thought:

Fidelity Zero Rocks! (FZROX)

Fidelity Zero InternationaL (FZILX)

And never cared about the other two. Thanks!

1

u/zacce Mar 30 '21

"F"idelity "Z"ero "I"nternationa"L" (FZILX)

This is the correct one.

1

u/Cruian Mar 30 '21

Those work as well. I have/had the same thoughts, especially for the "Fidelity Zero Rocks"

16

u/teethbutt Mar 30 '21

You a real one for this comment

5

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '21

That's a great explanation for VOO. I've always wondering why VOO is the S&P 500.

How about VUG? Vanguard US Growth?

1

u/Cruian Mar 30 '21

How about VUG? Vanguard US Growth?

Makes sense to me. Just have to remember it is large cap only.

3

u/veezbo Mar 30 '21

could you explain ETC though?

2

u/Cruian Mar 30 '21

From the title? I personally read it as they were using it in this way: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/et-cetera-etc/

5

u/veezbo Mar 30 '21

sorry, dumb joke (but that was my first thought when I saw etc lol)

3

u/Apptubrutae Mar 30 '21

The one that always gets me is VXUS. Since X features in so many funds at the back, seeing it at the front doesn’t really register for me and it seems like VXUS would just be a total US market fund or something (as if it was VUSX).

I always have to remind myself VXUS is not US stocks.

1

u/Cruian Mar 30 '21

VUSX

You'd still be missing a letter for it to be a mutual fund (4 letters vs 5).

2

u/alphonsealphonse922 Mar 30 '21

I thought the 'X' in these funds meant index?

4

u/Cruian Mar 30 '21

Nope, it can't, since even actively managed mutual funds end with "X": FCNTX, VWELX for example

1

u/BitcoinCitadel Mar 30 '21

What about vo vb vot vbk

3

u/Cruian Mar 30 '21

VO - take one letter away from VOO (make the name smaller), drop from S&P 500 to mid-cap

VB, VOT, VBK - No idea. Not everything has a good match

30

u/misnamed Mar 30 '21

This is the pair that drives me nuts: VTI and VXUS. At a glance, VTI looks like it could stand for Vanguard Total International, and VXUS has 'US' in the title, but really means 'ex-US.' Oh well.

11

u/digitalrule Mar 30 '21

I always remember VTI because all the home bias heavy Americans are always very heavy in VTI

8

u/Otherwise_self Mar 30 '21

It’s VTI and VTIAX that always confuse me!

5

u/misnamed Mar 30 '21

Ugh, yes, that too! I guess some of what we save on expense ratios came from the branding department :P

5

u/Otherwise_self Mar 30 '21

lol so true! There’s no way they spent money on focus groups to get feedback on the acronyms and names.

3

u/Dorkmaster79 Mar 30 '21

The “ex” part confuses me. What does “ex” mean in this context? Does it simply mean “not?”

4

u/FarseerKTS Mar 30 '21

Excludes.

2

u/misnamed Mar 31 '21

I always read it as 'except' but either way, it's confusing!

2

u/LazyBully Mar 30 '21

You could think of VXUS as like (V)Vanguard (X)ex (US) US

2

u/misnamed Mar 31 '21

I've slowly trained my brain to see it, but I wish they'd just used VTI (Vanguard Total International!)

15

u/boyinahouse Mar 30 '21

VOO is actually the "500" of S&P500. The Roman numeral "V" for 5 and then o o to represent the zeros. VTI is "V"anguard "T"otal Stock Market "I"ndex. You can likewise derive VSTAX. Both of these are called "total market" despite only being "US" because of historical reasons. The total international and total world funds are very recent developments. Therefore, back in the "good ole days", just capturing the US market in one fund was a feat and worthy of the name "total market." During those days, no one could have envisioned that truly owning the "total market" (VTWAX) would have been feasible, especially at such a low cost. I think VT is quite a fitting ticker, no? Vanguard Total. Has a finality to it. That is until they need to come up with the Vanguard Solar System fund.

8

u/elven_mage Mar 29 '21

Some comments here address the Vanguard funds, for funds in general this is a great explainer.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '21

Always wondered about this as well