CAPE vs VYM

CAPEDDoubleLine Shiller CAPE U.S. Equities ETF

VYMAVanguard High Dividend Yield ETF

In short

CAPE Nobel laureate Robert Shiller's CAPE ratio, wired into an ETF: each month it ranks the 11 US sectors on valuation, throws out the one with the worst momentum, and holds the four cheapest survivors in equal weight.

VYM The no-frills dividend workhorse. VYM buys the higher-yielding end of the US market, roughly 600 names, for four basis points: no quality screen, no dividend-growth-streak test, just yield, at scale since 2006.

Stated mandate

CAPE The fund seeks total returns above the S&P 500 by investing in the four cheapest U.S. large-cap sectors selected through modified CAPE valuation and momentum-based value-trap mitigation.

VYM The Fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of common stocks from companies characterized by high dividend yields.

Why people hold it

• CAPE The rulebook is legible: five cheapest sectors by a modified CAPE ratio, minus the weakest 12-month performer, equal weight across the four left standing, rebalanced monthly.doubleline.com
• Four equal-weight sector sleeves out of eleven is a genuinely different shape from the cap-weighted S&P 500 the fund names as its benchmark.doubleline.com
• The momentum screen exists for one job: keeping the portfolio out of sectors that are cheap because something is broken, not because they are overlooked.doubleline.com
• DoubleLine runs it actively against an index it built with Barclays and Shiller, live in ETF form since 2022.prnewswire.com

• VYM Four basis points a year, against a peer-group median near 0.32%. Cheaper than cohort neighbors VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%).
• Running since 2006 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so ordinary orders tend to fill at tight spreads.
• Simple mandate: track the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index of US common stocks screened on yield. No manager discretion, no options overlay, plain 1940-Act fund.vanguard.com
• Pays quarterly, and among 100-plus value and multifactor rivals it stands as one of the strongest overall packages in the group.

Worth knowing

• CAPE At 0.65% a year it runs well above the US multifactor median near 0.32%, and above value peers such as FNDX (0.25%) or VONV (0.06%).
• Concentration cuts both ways: holding four of eleven sectors means results can diverge widely from the S&P 500 in either direction.doubleline.com
• Thinly traded for its category, and unlike a traditional ETF it does not publish holdings daily, so spreads can be wider and the portfolio less visible.doubleline.com

• VYM The screen is yield, not payout growth or dividend quality, so a company can qualify simply because its share price fell.
• This is a value slice by design, tilted to established payers, so it behaves differently from a total US market fund.
• Roughly 600 holdings, but weight leans toward the largest payers, so the top of the roster does more of the work than the count suggests.

Full CAPE profile⁠

Full VYM profile⁠