HEAL vs VHT

HEALCGlobal X HealthTech ETF

VHTAVanguard Health Care ETF

In short

HEAL Most health care ETFs are pharma giants in a trench coat. HEAL goes the other way: roughly 40 health technology names worldwide, tracked against Global X's own HealthTech index, in a cohort built mostly of broad sector funds.

VHT The whole US health care sector in one ticket: roughly 400 stocks, an index that reaches well past the megacaps, and a nine-basis-point fee. Trading since 2004, it is one of the category's originals.

Stated mandate

HEAL The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Global X HealthTech Index.

VHT The fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of health care stocks.

Why people hold it

• HEAL Focused by design. Roughly 40 holdings on a global mandate, so the health technology theme actually drives returns instead of being diluted by the whole sector.
• Rules-based, not manager-driven: it tracks the Global X HealthTech Index before fees and expenses, so what you own follows a published methodology rather than someone's conviction list.
• Global reach. Health technology innovation is not a US-only story, and the mandate is worldwide rather than fenced into the S&P 500 like several of the biggest sector options.
• A standard 1940 Act ETF wrapper holding equities. No leverage, no derivatives overlay, no K-1 surprises at tax time.

• VHT Costs 0.09% a year while the typical fund in its health care peer group charges 0.50%. Same sector, a fraction of the toll.
• Roughly 400 holdings drawn from an investable-market index, so mid and small health care companies count too, not just the sector's giants.vanguard.com
• Two decades old, now a multi-billion-dollar fund, moderately traded, and it has hugged its benchmark closely. Pays out quarterly.
• On cost, tracking and tradability together, it stands among the strongest builds in a 24-fund health care cohort.

Worth knowing

• HEAL The 0.50% expense ratio sits right at the cohort median, but it is several times what the broad sector anchors charge: VHT at 0.09%, XLV and FHLC at 0.08%. Focus costs money here.
• Concentration cuts both ways. With about 40 names in one theme, individual holdings move the fund far more than they would in a several-hundred-stock health care index.
• It is one of the smaller and less actively traded funds in its peer group, which typically means wider bid-ask spreads than the household-name sector ETFs.

• VHT FHLC and XLV each shave a basis point off the fee. If the fee line is your only tiebreaker, VHT is not the final word.
• One sector, one news cycle. Drug pricing rules, patent expirations and regulatory decisions can move the entire basket at once.vanguard.com
• Cap-weighted with a 25/50 diversification rule, so no single name can dominate outright, but the largest pharma and insurer positions still steer most of the ride.vanguard.com

Full HEAL profile⁠

Full VHT profile⁠