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INVESTING STRATEGY

Overlap In ETF's

Hey There! I do have a question about overlap of stocks in ETF's. A site I follow has an international model portfolio of VDHG (18%) - MGOC (8%) - QUAL (8%) & VGE (7%).I get VGE...self explanatory.Between VDHG, MGOC & QUAL......isnt there too much overlap of the top holdings? Even if you replaced VDHG with VGS (which I hold).Are there other reasons for chosing those 3 ETF's?

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Jas B

5 June 2022

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Mark (ETFtracker)

INVESTOR

over 2 years ago

so VDHG is a fund of funds and underneath it there is VAS (36%), VGS (26%), VGAD (16%), VBND, VISM, VGE and VAF so right off the bat you already have some inherent crossover holding both VDHG and VGE but you’ve got that so all good

Now if we break down the comparison between the above and QUAL we get this https://imgur.com/a/Q3ppRys

You can see that AAPL which is in QUAL is also in VGAD and VGS… MSFT is up there too across both

It’s not overly crazy the holdings you’ve got I would say.

The tool for the above is something I built called ETFtracker (www.etftracker.com.au) where I get monthly data from the ASX/CBOE to look at performance and other metrics but then on a weekly basis I’ll scrape holdings from the top issuers (BetaShares, iShares, ETF Securities, State Street, VanEck, Vanguard) but there are those active ETFs which don’t update holdings often, don’t share their total holdings and don’t make it easy (e.g. machine readable) so its not easy to compare to MGOC unless you’re doing it manually

Anyway, if you or anyone else is interested in how this works then check out this old comparison using the tool above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4KHH6TLfkk&a...

On the site are 2x apps (both built in Power BI) with one only looking at holdings and the other being for holdings comparisons plus monthly performance analysis

Hope this helps for at least VDHG and QUAL

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Jas B

INVESTOR

over 2 years ago

Thanks for your response Mark. I’ll check out your tracker.

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Owen Rask

INVESTMENT ADVISER

over 2 years ago

Hey Jas! Good question re overlap.

There’s a free tool available on Vanguard which you can find here: https://tool.vanguardinvestments.com.au/mstar...

MGOC is an active ETF with only 30 positions, whereas QUAL is targeting ~300 companies with a quality factor. The thing that I find really interesting from using that Vanguard tool are things like the sector allocations. In my experience Magellan has a natural tendency to target higher quality companies, so it skews to consumer defensive, tech, financials etc. — but other than financial services (where 3 of the ETFs have approx. 20% invested), no other sector seems to be overwhelmingly exposed. Maybe the one sector you could say that’s overweight is tech, where QUAL has 30% of the portfolio. But an investor could control the exposure to certain sectors by having, say, QUAL or MGOC as a lesser position.

In addition to Mark’s tool, another great tool to use is Morningstar. While I believe it’s a premium feature (it ain’t that expensive to get a Morningstar US subscription, especially if you love investing like I do). The tool allows you to see through all types of funds and understand how they might ‘blend’. I’m not sure if this is visible to free users:

https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/xasx/vdhg/po...

It shows very much the same stuff as Vanguard’s tool but it also looks at exposure to valuations, things like factors/styles. For example, QUAL is trying to capture the ‘quality factor’ by focusing on low debt, high profitability type companies.

Ultimately it’s one of those things Jason which can be controlled through position sizing (e.g. using a Core & Satellite strategy).

With a portfolio like that (jus

Show more.....

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Jas B

INVESTOR

over 2 years ago

Thanks Owen for your reply….very much appreciated.

I am a member of Morningstar Aus but always like asking the opinion of others such as yourself whom I respect.

I’ll check out the US Morningstar as well.

Always trying to learn and gather as much information as I can.

I do hold VGS and your emerging markets ETF, but as mentioned was curious as to the holdings/overlap of the ETF’s in my post.

Thanks again for your reply!!

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Jas B

INVESTOR

over 2 years ago

Are there other reasons for chosing those 3 ETF’s? Other than diversifcation…….but still thinking too much overlap between the 3?

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