FTGS vs VUG: Grades, Fees and Holdings Compared

First Trust Growth Strength ETF

FTGSCNasdaq

Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF

VUGANYSE Arca

Overlap

16.5%by weight

Expense ratio

VUG −0.57pt a year

FTGS0.60%VUG0.03%

Avg volume · 30D

VUG 54.8×the volume

FTGS115KVUG6.32M

3Y return · a year

VUG +6.8pt

FTGS+17.8%VUG+24.6%

FTGS vs VUG Performance

Oct 31, 2025 – Oct 30, 2026

+5.2%FTGS+2.7%VUG

Expense ratio: FTGS 0.60%; VUG 0.03%, better
Fund size: FTGS $1.27B; VUG $392B
1Y total return: FTGS +5.2%, better; VUG +2.7%
Yield (12M): FTGS 0.04%; VUG 0.41%, better
Holdings: FTGS 51; VUG 136
Avg volume (30D): FTGS 115K sh; VUG 6.32M sh, better
NAV per share: FTGS $37.48; VUG $85.06
52W range

ETF.net Grade

Pillar letters and Scores for FTGS, VUG, with each pillar’s weight
Pillar	FTGS	VUG
Cost30% weight	F6	A96Higher
Mission25% weight	A76	A99Higher
Risk15% weight	A70Higher	C49
Tradability15% weight	D39	B65Higher
Holdings10% weight	B68Higher	D29
Durability5% weight	D38	A91Higher

Rank among US Growth Index funds

How we build Categories ›

Same Category. FTGS and VUG are both graded against the same 35 US Growth Index funds, so their Grades compare head to head.

US Growth Index⁠

Category · 35 funds

See all 35 ›

VUG ranks 5th and FTGS 28th of 35 funds in the US Growth Index Category.

Rank 2ASCHGSchwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETFScore 78
Rank 5AVUGVanguard Morningstar Growth ETFScore 77
Rank 6AVBKVanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Growth ETFScore 72
Rank 27CBKLGBNY Mellon US Large Cap Equity Growth ETFScore 51
Rank 28CFTGSFirst Trust Growth Strength ETFScore 45
Rank 28CFYCFirst Trust Small Cap Growth AlphaDEX FundScore 45

Our read on each fund

ETF.net Research

FTGSCFirst Trust Growth Strength ETF

VUGAVanguard Morningstar Growth ETF

In short

FTGS Growth with a credit check. FTGS holds about 50 US names that clear screens for return on equity, long-term debt against cash, and revenue and cash flow growth. Growth that funds itself, rather than borrows for it.

VUG Three basis points buys roughly 170 US large-cap growth names. Running since 2004, over $100 billion in assets, and it tracks its index about as closely as an index fund can.

Stated mandate

FTGS The Fund seeks results generally corresponding to the price and yield, before fees and expenses, of The Growth StrengthTM Index. Normally, it invests at least 80% of net assets in the common stocks and REITs comprising that Index.

VUG The fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of large-capitalization growth stocks.

Why people hold it

FTGS A quality gate wearing a growth label: return on equity, long-term debt versus cash, and revenue plus cash flow growth. Balance sheet first, story second.yahoo.com
About 50 holdings, with REITs eligible alongside common stocks. Concentrated and a little unusual for a growth fund, which is the reason to hold it next to a cap-weighted index.
The portfolio sticks to the mandate: at least 80% of net assets in the index's stocks and REITs, US large-cap growth, no drift into side bets.
Since its 2022 launch it has grown into a multi-billion-dollar fund and trades regularly, so ordinary-sized orders are not fighting an empty book.

VUG 0.03% a year against a 0.18% median for its growth peer group. A rival tracking the same declared index charges 0.36%, twelve times more for the same shopping list.vanguard.com
One of the largest and most heavily traded funds in US large-cap growth, and among the tightest index implementations in that group. Deep volume tends to mean thin spreads.
Trading since January 2004, so the record spans full market cycles rather than a backtest. Distributions land quarterly.

Worth knowing

FTGS 0.60% a year is the entry fee, while plain-vanilla category giants like IUSG and VYM charge under a tenth of that. The screen has to earn the gap.
With roughly 50 names, single stocks and sector tilts carry real weight, so results can wander well away from broad growth benchmarks in either direction.
The live record starts in late 2022, a short history for judging how a fundamental screen behaves across different markets.

VUG Cap-weighted, so the biggest mega-caps dominate the top of the book. That makes it one of the more concentrated portfolios in this cohort.vanguard.com
A style sleeve, not the whole market: growth screens only, large caps only. When growth is out of favor it can swing harder than a total-market fund.
SPYG and SCHG sit at 0.04%, so the price edge is a rounding error. The real gap is how each index defines a growth stock.

Full FTGS profile⁠

Full VUG profile⁠

FTGS vs VUG Holdings

How FTGS and VUG differ

Overlap by weight

16.5%

Shared holdings make up 51.3% of FTGS and 33.2% of VUG.

Level by level

Holdings26 in both16.5%
Sector10 Sectors61.3%
Countryby domicile98.0%
Asset classEquity100%

Sector

Sector weights in FTGS and VUG, widest gap first
Sector	More in FTGSMore in VUG	FTGS	VUG
Technology	VUG +25.5 points	34.7%	60.2%
Financials	FTGS +14.2 points	18.1%	3.9%
Communication	VUG +11.2 points	3.5%	14.7%
Health Care	FTGS +10.1 points	14.3%	4.2%
Industrials	FTGS +7.6 points	12.0%	4.4%
Materials	FTGS +3.4 points	3.8%	0.4%
Consumer Discretionary	VUG +2.0 points	7.8%	9.8%
Energy	FTGS +1.8 points	2.1%	0.3%
Real Estate	FTGS +0.9 points	1.8%	0.9%
Consumer Staples	FTGS +0.7 points	2.0%	1.3%

Country, concentration and asset class

Country by domicile

Country weights in FTGS and VUG, widest gap first
Country	More in FTGSMore in VUG	FTGS	VUG
United States	VUG +1.9 points	98.0%	100.0%
Switzerland	FTGS +2.0 points	1.9%	0.0%

Concentration

Weight in the 10 largest Holdings

FTGS22.1%
VUG63.1%

Securities held

FTGS50
VUG135

Asset class

FTGS: Equity
VUG: Equity

Holdings

Only in FTGS24
In both26
Only in VUG109

Only in FTGS

24 securities, 48.6% of FTGS by weight

United Therapeutics Corporation2.27%
S&P Global Inc.2.20%
General Dynamics Corporation2.19%
Five Below, Inc.2.19%
Incyte Corporation2.15%
Delta Air Lines, Inc.2.15%
Cincinnati Financial Corporation2.14%
Arch Capital Group Ltd.2.13%
Intuit Inc.2.12%
Ralph Lauren Corporation2.06%
PayPal Holdings, Inc.2.03%
Baker Hughes Company (Class A)2.01%
Stryker Corporation2.00%
Expedia Group, Inc.2.00%
Ameriprise Financial, Inc.1.98%
CBRE Group, Inc.1.96%
Tapestry, Inc.1.96%
Garmin Ltd.1.94%
Salesforce, Inc.1.93%
Cummins Inc.1.90%
Uber Technologies, Inc.1.88%
Newmont Corporation1.82%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc.1.82%
Trane Technologies plc1.81%

Only in VUG

109 securities, 66.8% of VUG by weight

Apple Inc12.51%
Microsoft Corp9.75%
Alphabet Inc5.16%
Amazon.com Inc4.26%
Alphabet Inc4.09%
Advanced Micro Devices Inc2.66%
Tesla Inc2.65%
Visa Inc1.59%
Intel Corp1.45%
Lam Research Corp1.11%
Applied Materials Inc1.10%
Costco Wholesale Corp1.09%
Palo Alto Networks Inc0.88%
Crowdstrike Holdings Inc0.71%
KLA Corp0.70%
Sandisk Corp0.70%
GE Vernova Inc0.69%
Oracle Corp0.65%
Welltower Inc0.46%
General Electric Co0.45%
Western Digital Corp0.44%
TJX Cos Inc/The0.41%
Boeing Co/The0.41%
ServiceNow Inc0.39%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc0.37%
Texas Instruments Inc0.36%
Booking Holdings Inc0.34%
Cloudflare Inc0.33%
Snowflake Inc0.32%
Starbucks Corp0.30%
Equinix Inc0.29%
Quanta Services Inc0.28%
Datadog Inc0.27%
Space Exploration Technologies Corp0.26%
Howmet Aerospace Inc0.26%
Robinhood Markets Inc0.26%
Lumentum Holdings Inc0.26%
Synopsys Inc0.25%
McDonald's Corp0.24%
Dell Technologies Inc0.23%
Bloom Energy Corp0.23%
Marriott International Inc/MD0.22%
Motorola Solutions Inc0.22%
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc0.21%
DoorDash Inc0.21%
Ecolab Inc0.21%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc0.21%
Airbnb Inc0.20%
Cintas Corp0.20%
Teradyne Inc0.19%

Weight gaps

All 26 Holdings in both funds, largest gap first.

Holding weights in FTGS and VUG, widest gap first
Holding	More in FTGSMore in VUG	FTGS	VUG
NVIDIA CorporationNVDA	VUG +11.56 points	1.93%	13.49%
Meta Platforms, Inc. (Class A)META	VUG +2.48 points	1.75%	4.23%
Broadcom Inc.AVGO	VUG +2.33 points	2.01%	4.34%
Blackstone Inc.BX	FTGS +2.12 points	2.25%	0.13%
Vertiv Holdings Co (Class A)VRT	FTGS +2.01 points	2.28%	0.27%
Workday, Inc. (Class A)WDAY	FTGS +1.98 points	2.10%	0.12%
Monster Beverage CorporationMNST	FTGS +1.92 points	2.09%	0.17%
ResMed Inc.RMD	FTGS +1.88 points	1.95%	0.07%
Moody's CorporationMCO	FTGS +1.86 points	2.06%	0.20%
Monolithic Power Systems, Inc.MPWR	FTGS +1.83 points	2.02%	0.19%
DexCom, Inc.DXCM	FTGS +1.83 points	1.94%	0.11%
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (Class A)IBKR	FTGS +1.81 points	1.88%	0.07%
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.CDNS	FTGS +1.81 points	2.08%	0.27%
Intuitive Surgical, Inc.ISRG	FTGS +1.64 points	2.05%	0.41%
Comfort Systems USA, Inc.FIX	FTGS +1.55 points	1.73%	0.18%
Corning IncorporatedGLW	FTGS +1.55 points	1.89%	0.34%
Applovin Corp. (Class A)APP	FTGS +1.50 points	1.74%	0.24%
Seagate Technology Holdings PlcSTX	FTGS +1.46 points	2.04%	0.58%
Amphenol CorporationAPH	FTGS +1.45 points	2.02%	0.57%
Arista Networks, Inc.ANET	FTGS +1.33 points	1.93%	0.60%
Fortinet, Inc.FTNT	FTGS +1.31 points	1.63%	0.32%
Marvell Technology, Inc.MRVL	FTGS +1.10 points	1.74%	0.64%
Netflix, Inc.NFLX	FTGS +1.00 points	1.78%	0.78%
Mastercard IncorporatedMA	FTGS +0.93 points	2.09%	1.16%
Palantir Technologies Inc. (Class A)PLTR	FTGS +0.90 points	2.00%	1.10%
Eli Lilly and CompanyLLY	VUG +0.32 points	2.28%	2.60%

All 50 FTGS holdings⁠All 166 VUG holdings⁠

How we measure overlap

Each holding counts at its smaller weight in the two funds, summed over the full Holdings. Sector, country and asset class use the same rule on each fund’s split. Cash, FX and derivative lines stay out of the counts. Two bond funds get no overlap figure.

FTGS vs VUG Cost

Overpaying FTGS vs VUG

$11,179

On $10,000 over 30 years. 7% growth a year before fees, expense ratio only.

FTGS 0.60%
$11,817
VUG 0.03%
$638

Amount$10,000

Years30 years

Cost over time

FTGS 0.60%
VUG 0.03%
Overpaying

Year by year

Year	FTGS	VUG	Overpaying
10	$1,076	$55	$1,021
20	$4,116	$216	$3,900
30	$11,817	$638	$11,179

Expense ratio

0.60%FTGS
0.03%VUG, cheaper

VUG0.03%FTGS0.60%

0.03%0.70%

Middle half of US Growth Index funds
Median 0.18%

VUG cheapest of 35 funds

FTGS 32nd cheapest of 35 funds

FTGS vs VUG Dividends

Last 12 months to Oct 30, 2026

Yield (12M): FTGS 0.04%; VUG 0.41%, better
Payout (12M): FTGS $0.01; VUG $0.35
Last payment: FTGS $0.0088; VUG $0.09
Ex-dividend: FTGS Sep 24, 2026; VUG Sep 28, 2026
Paid on: FTGS Sep 30, 2026; VUG Sep 30, 2026
Frequency: FTGS Twice a year; VUG Quarterly

Distribution history

Per share, 2017 to 2026, same scale for both

FTGSTwice a year · 14 paymentsAll FTGS payments⁠

VUGQuarterly · 39 paymentsAll VUG payments⁠

FTGS vs VUG Risk

Fall from peak · 5 years

This chart needs five years of history for both funds.

Risk facts

VolatilityStd dev, 3 years: FTGS 13.8%, betterVUG 17.3%
Return per unit of riskSharpe ratio, 3 years: FTGS 0.94VUG 1.11, better
Worst fallMax drawdown, 5 years: FTGS −20.0%since Oct 2022VUG −35.6%
Market sensitivityBeta, 5 years: FTGS 1.02VUG 1.23; Market = 1

FTGS and VUG in the news

All news⁠

Best ETFs
The best growth ETF is the cheap one on the index you want
Updated Nov 2, 2026VUG
Head-to-Head
Own iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, IVV, unless you want the heavier growth bet in Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF, VUG
Oct 16, 2026VUG
Best ETFs
The cheap large-cap growth pick is the S&P 500 list
Updated Oct 2, 2026VUG
Behind the Index
Oil rose 4.5% and the 10-year yield stood at 5% as two U.S. stocks fell for every one that rose
Sep 15, 2026VUG

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FTGS vs VUG

In short

Stated mandate

Why people hold it