BKMC vs VO

BKMCABNY Mellon US Mid Cap Core Equity ETF

VOAVanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF

In short

BKMC About 400 US mid-caps for four basis points, from BNY Mellon's cut-rate ETF shelf. The fee undercuts most of the mid-cap field; the trade-off is a thinner tape than the household names.

VO The plain middle of the US market for three basis points. VO owns roughly 300 stocks sitting between the 70th and 85th percentile of investable market cap, each at index weight, with buffer bands that slow the churn at the edges.

Stated mandate

BKMC The fund seeks to track the Solactive GBS United States 400 Index TR.

VO The fund seeks to track the CRSP US Mid Cap Index by investing in its U.S. mid-cap stocks through passive, full replication.

Why people hold it

• BKMC Costs 0.04% a year, well under the 0.15% median for US mid-cap funds and level with the cheapest of the big index shops (IMCB).
• Tracks the Solactive GBS United States 400 Index tightly, with roughly 400 names spreading single-stock risk across the whole mid-cap band.
• Straight index core equity in a standard 1940 Act fund: one benchmark, no sector tilts, quarterly distributions.

• VO Costs 0.03% a year against a 0.15% median for mid-cap peers, matching SCHM as the cheapest in the group and undercutting IWR by a wide margin.
• Full replication, not sampling: it holds the index's roughly 300 names at index weight, and its tracking is among the tightest in the mid-cap group.vanguard.com
• Trading since 2004 as a share class of Vanguard's Mid-Cap Index Fund, it has grown into one of the largest and most actively traded mid-cap index funds.sec.gov
• CRSP draws the mid-cap line by percentage of market cap, not a fixed stock count, with buffer zones at the edges so companies migrate gradually rather than jumping buckets.crsp.orgbogleheads.org

Worth knowing

• BKMC Thinly traded next to the mid-cap heavyweights, which tends to mean wider bid-ask spreads and more price impact on big orders.
• Launched in 2020, so the live track record is short compared with mid-cap index funds that have run for decades.
• VO and SCHM shave another basis point off the fee and carry far heavier trading, so the cost edge here is about matching the field, not leading it.

• VO Mid caps move harder than blue chips, and Vanguard flags that: the fund sits at the top of its own 1-to-5 risk scale.vanguard.com
• One band of the market by design. No mega caps, no small caps, so it covers the middle rather than the whole US market.crsp.org
• About 300 stocks is a narrower net than a total-market fund casts, and sector weights are simply whatever the middle of the market looks like at the time.

Full BKMC profile⁠

Full VO profile⁠