Today, Vanguard’s new Total World ETF (VT), tracking the FTSE All World index, became available to trade. It’s too early to get into the ETF, because there is virtually no volume, but this fund deserves watching. The FTSE All World Index covers 47 countries and 2,908 companies, including both developed and emerging markets. FTSE says the index covers 98% of the investable world universe. The ETF from Vanguard charges a 25 basis point fee. The sister mutual fund (VTWSX) has a higher expense ratio and charges a 2% fee for redemptions in the first two months (not a factor for the ETF). In the short term, the mutual fund would be a better choice if you have a time horizon over 2 months, because of the liquidity factor. The mutual fund will definitely execute at NAV on the day you place your buy order and will definitely execute at NAV on ...

We selected the single country funds available in the Index Universe database for calendar year return analysis. Cumulative and annualized returns are important, but so too are discreet calendar years.

While statistical tools may theoretically, adequately describe variation or consistency of returns, a visual impression can be helpful too. This analysis is primarily visual.

Within the list we used a traffic metaphor with colored backgrounds of red, yellow and green for each year for each fund as follows:

red for returns < -5% yellow for returns between 5% and -5% (or no data) green for returns > 5%

Funds with no data, were not in operation for those full years.

If you are interested in those country index funds with missing data, you may benefit by researching the index on which the fund is based to estimate how the fund might have done had it been in operation during the missing years. Don’t

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