When it comes to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the ASX, the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS) certainly has a strong presence.
For one, it has the coveted Vanguard name. Vanguard is a US-based asset manager. It has a few unique distinctions to its name. The first is that Vanguard's founder, the late John Bogle, is widely credited with 'inventing' the concept of an index fund in the first place.
Back in the 1970s, Bogle initiated the world's first index fund, tracking the US S&P 500 Index. Today, there are countless S&P 500 index funds, but Vanguard's will always be the first.
Secondly, Vanguard, unlike almost all other ETF providers, is a not-for-profit organisation. Bogle's vision was an asset manager owned by its investors, with profits cycled back into ever-lower fees. This is a vision intact today.
It's for these two reasons that the legendary investor Warren Buffett had the highest of praises for Bogle. When Bogle died in 2019, CNBC reported that Warren Buffett had this to say about the man:
Jack did more for American investors as a whole than any individual I've known… A lot of Wall Street is devoted to charging a lot for nothing. He charged nothing to accomplish a huge amount.
High praise indeed.
So Vanguard's Australian Shares Index ETF was always going to be a heavy hitter in the field of ASX ETFs. But is it the most popular ETF on the ASX?
Is the Vanguard Australian Shares ETF the ASX's first choice?
Well, the answer is yes.
As of 30 September, Vanguard reported that its Australian Shares ETF had a size of $10.759 billion. In the language of ETFs, this means that it has a total of $10.759 billion in funds under management. That's investors' dollars in the fund.
Its closest rivals can't even come close to competing with this. The nearest index fund rivals are the iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV) and the Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS). These funds have, on the latest data, $4.933 billion and $4.641 billion in funds under management respectively.
When it comes to ASX-based index funds, the gap is wider still. The SPDR S&P/ASX 200 Fund (ASX: STW), the oldest ASX index fund on the share market, commands $4.408 billion in funds under management at present.
The iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF (ASX: IOZ) musters $3.25 billion. The BetaShares Australia 200 ETF (ASX: A200), currently the ASX's cheapest Australian index fund, has $2.458 billion of its investors' dollars under its stewardship.
So we can unequivocally say that the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF is Australians' first choice when it comes to exchange-traded funds. It's a mighty large gap too.
