IMCG vs VOO

IMCGAiShares Morningstar Mid-Cap Growth ETF

VOOAVanguard S&P 500 ETF

In short

IMCG Growth investing usually means megacaps. IMCG works the middle of the market instead: roughly 300 mid-cap growth names, indexed since 2004, for six basis points a year.

VOO Not a standalone ETF but a share class of Vanguard's flagship 500 Index Fund: the same roughly 500 large US companies, 0.03% a year, in a wrapper you can trade all day.

Stated mandate

IMCG The Fund seeks to track an index of U.S. mid-capitalization equities with growth characteristics. Its strategy uses representative sampling and generally invests at least 80% of assets in securities from the Underlying Index.

VOO The fund invests in stocks represented by the S&P 500 Index and seeks to closely track that index's return as a measure of overall U.S. stock performance.

Why people hold it

• IMCG 0.06% a year, one third of the 0.18% median for its growth-fund peer group. Mid-cap indexing at large-cap-index prices.
• The growth leaderboard is stacked with large-cap funds (VUG, SCHG, SPYG, VONG). IMCG covers the middle instead, holding about 300 mid-cap growth names.
• Sticks close to the Morningstar mid-cap growth index it follows, one of the tighter tracking jobs in its peer group.
• Running since 2004 under the iShares roof, with a multi-billion-dollar asset base behind it.

• VOO 0.03% a year against a 0.15% median for S&P 500 trackers. On a fund this size, that fee gap is the whole product.
• Holds the index outright, all roughly 500 names, and its tracking record sits among the tightest in the S&P 500 group.vanguard.com
• One of the most actively traded ETFs in the market, which tends to keep the cost of getting in and out small.
• It is the ETF share class of Vanguard's 500 Index Fund, and Vanguard is owned by its own funds, so no outside parent takes a cut.vanguard.comsec.gov

Worth knowing

• IMCG Moderately traded rather than heavily traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the megacap growth ETFs sitting beside it in the category.
• This is a size-and-style bet. Mid-cap growth companies tend to move more sharply than the broad market, in both directions.
• Distributions land quarterly, but a growth screen is not built around income.

• VOO Large US companies only, weighted by size, so the biggest few names carry the most weight and drive much of the move.spglobal.com
• Membership is not purely mechanical: an S&P index committee decides which companies come in and go out.spglobal.com
• SPYM tracks the same index for 0.02%. A rounding error for most, but real if cost is your only tiebreaker.

Full IMCG profile⁠

Full VOO profile⁠