The Last To Know

I'm sure I'm the last to know but Vanguard came out with three new ETFs that focus on foreign stocks. One is for emerging markets (VWO), another for Europe (VGK) and the third is the Pacific (VPL). The may come to regret the symbol for that last one;-)

VWO has four of the same top ten holdings as iShares emerging Markets (EEM). What strikes me about VWO is that with in the top ten is Brazilian oil giant Petrobras (PBR) and the Petrobras preferred. VWO has Sasol (SSL), which is a South African oil stock, at number 6. Where as it is number 18 in EEM. So there are differences.

VGK compares to the iShares Europe 350 (IEV). These two have nine out ten top tens in common so expect a very tight correlation.

VPL is 74% weighted in Japan so it will likely correlate to iShares Japan (EWJ). I have no exposure to Japan for clients so this one holds very little appeal.

Vanguard seems to have only created me too ETFs. I can understand the risk a firm takes by creating an ETF product line that people don't care about, hello Morningstar?, but there is demand for different regions and at some point soon I expect providers to ramp up the innovation.