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7 Best Small-Cap Funds to Buy and Hold

https://money.usnews.com/investing/funds/slideshows/best-small-cap-funds-to-buy-and-hold?src=usn_invested_nl

7 Best Small-Cap Funds to Buy and Hold
Small-cap investments can outperform large caps in the long run

Comments

  • edited December 2019
    Only one Mutual Fund in the list.
    Can someone please tell me why one should by NAESX over VSCPX? I was looking to start an investment in VSCPX in 2020.
    Unless I'm doing this wrong, VSCPX outperforms NAESX.
  • edited December 2019
    Any post trumpeting the "xx best" or the "xx greatest" or the "xx reasons to" should be regarded as nothing more than click bait garbage, and automatically ignored as a waste of time.
  • edited December 2019

    Only one Mutual Fund in the list.
    Can someone please tell me why one should by NAESX over VSCPX? I was looking to start an investment in VSCPX in 2020.
    Unless I'm doing this wrong, VSCPX outperforms NAESX.

    VSCPX is institutional with a minimum of $100 million. Can you get it via a workplace plan? NAESX is investor class with a minimum of $3000 but it is closed. The difference in expense ratios (0.03 versus 0.17) might account for the fraction of a percent difference in returns.

    As far as active funds go, I would recommend BCSIX and PXSGX as long term holds, but they are also closed. The best of the rest (or one of them) is PRDSX. It sounds like you are looking for an index fund though, which is an eminently sensible approach to the small-cap space.


  • edited December 2019
    VintageFreak said:

    Only one Mutual Fund in the list.
    Can someone please tell me why one should by NAESX over VSCPX? I was looking to start an investment in VSCPX in 2020.
    Unless I'm doing this wrong, VSCPX outperforms NAESX.
    = = = = = =

    NAESX ,the investor class with the expense ratio of 0.17, is closed because Vanguard has VSMAX ,the admiral class, now available with an ER of 0.05 for the same $3,000.

    So VSCPX with ER 0.03, VSCIX with ER 0.04, or a bargain VSMAX with ER 0.05 are the open choices if you are interested in the Vanguard index mutual fund in that space.

    VSCPX $100 million ER .03, VSCIX $5 million ER .04, VSMAX $3,000 ER .05
  • PRDSX. +32.96% ytd.
    +15.58% over 10 years.
    +10.83 over 15 years.
    I'm keeping it. Although I've cut back on the small-cap allocation in the portfolio, overall.
  • Wife had VSCIX in 403b. We liked it until it swooned with the others, end of 2018. Switched into VEIRX. Happy, very happy, once again.
  • >>NAESX is investor class with a minimum of $3000 but it is closed.

    And yet this is the share class that appears in the US News article. Makes one wonder if this is yet another column that was just phoned in.

    >> So VSCPX with ER 0.03, VSCIX with ER 0.04, or a bargain VSMAX with ER 0.05 are the open choices if you are interested in the Vanguard index mutual fund in that space.

    There's also the ETF share class VB, with the same ER (0.05%) as the Admiral class, though with a bid/ask spread on trading and a minute SEC fee on sale.

    ---

    Generally when I consider an index fund (which I do on occasion), the first thing I look at is the choice of index. Only then do I look at the particular fund offerings, under the assumption that there's going to be some fund company offering a tracking fund for the index with good management and low fees.

    In the small cap space, I would be inclined to avoid R2K funds, simply because R2K is the most susceptible index to front running. The S&P 600 is a somewhat actively managed index (selected by committee, not algorithm), and operates with the restriction that it includes only profitable companies.

    Here's a column comparing attributes of those two indexes:
    https://tradingsim.com/blog/sp600-index/

    The Vanguard fund you're looking at follows a CRSP index. A distinguishing feature of this index is that it doesn't reach as far down into smaller cap stocks as the others, with an average market cap over $4B as opposed to less than $2B for the two others.

    There are a variety of other indexes in the space as well. BSMAX tracks the Rusell 2500, which is the R2K plus 500 mid caps. Its average market cap is similar to VSMAX's. SFSNX follows the Russell RAFI US Small Co. Index (see RAFI indexes/Rob Arnott). $3B market cap.
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