HAPS vs MGV

HAPSDHarbor Human Capital Factor US Small Cap ETF

MGVAVanguard Morningstar Mega Cap Value ETF

In short

HAPS A small-cap index fund that screens on corporate culture. Irrational Capital scores companies on how they treat their workforce, and Harbor holds the roughly 200 US small caps that rank highest. A people signal, not a balance-sheet one.

MGV Most "value" ETFs slide down into mid caps. MGV stays at the very top of the US market and buys the value half of it for five basis points. Vanguard's plain, cheap way to own the old-guard giants.

Stated mandate

HAPS The fund seeks pre-fee and pre-expense returns that correspond to the Human Capital Factor Small Cap Index. It uses an indexing approach and invests at least 80% of assets in index securities.

MGV The ETF seeks to track the Morningstar US Mega Cap Value Index and provides passive, diversified exposure to the largest value stocks in the U.S. market.

Why people hold it

• HAPS The screen is genuinely unusual: a proprietary corporate-culture score from Irrational Capital, not the standard value, quality or momentum recipe most small-cap factor funds run.sec.gov
• Plain index mechanics under the hood: at least 80% of assets in index names, roughly 200 small caps, and a portfolio that has stayed closely aligned with its stated mandate.
• Not a one-off experiment. Harbor applies the same Human Capital Factor scoring in its large-cap funds, so this is the small-cap extension of a methodology already running live.businesswire.com

• MGV At 0.05% it is the cheapest fund in its factor peer group, where the median charges 0.28%. It undercuts fellow top-rated peers SIZE (0.15%) and SUSA (0.25%).vanguard.com
• Launched December 2007, straight into the crash, and now a multi-billion-dollar fund. Long history, quarterly distributions, Vanguard plumbing behind it.
• One of the strongest overall showings in its US factor peer group, built on cost and staying power rather than a clever screen.

Worth knowing

• HAPS At 0.61% it costs more than double the small-cap cohort median of 0.25%, and the plain-vanilla leaders (VB and SCHA at 0.03%) charge a fraction of it.sec.gov
• Thinly traded next to category giants like IWM, so spreads can run wider and larger orders need more care.
• The index rules are proprietary, so you cannot fully reverse-engineer why a stock is in or out, and the fund has only traded since 2023.

• MGV About 130 names, all mega caps. The biggest holdings carry real weight, and small and mid caps are absent by design.
• It tracks a Morningstar index of the largest US value stocks, so it leaves out the market's growth giants and can move very differently from a total-market fund.vanguard.com
• Moderately traded rather than a household-name ticker, so limit orders and mid-session trading matter more here than with the very largest index ETFs.

Full HAPS profile⁠

Full MGV profile⁠