RSPN vs VIS

RSPNCInvesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF

VISBVanguard Industrials ETF

In short

RSPN Industrials with the pecking order erased. RSPN gives every industrials stock in the S&P 500 the same weight and resets quarterly, so a mid-tier machinery maker counts as much as the sector's biggest names.

VIS Industrials, the whole aisle: jet engines and railroads down to small-cap machinery shops, roughly 400 names for 0.09% a year. Vanguard has run it as a straight index fund since 2004.

Stated mandate

RSPN The fund tracks an index that equally weights stocks in the industrials sector of the S&P 500® Index and rebalances quarterly.

VIS The fund seeks to track the MSCI US Investable Market Industrials 25/50 Index and invests in multicapitalization equities focused on the industrials sector.

Why people hold it

• RSPN Equal weight, reset every quarter: the index trims what has run and tops up what has lagged on a schedule rather than letting size decide.invesco.com
• About 80 holdings, none allowed to dominate, so the sector's giants and its mid-tier names carry the same say.
• Trading since 2006 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, with a record spanning several industrial cycles and close tracking of its stated index.
• Sits in the upper half of the broad industrials group, and pays distributions quarterly.

• VIS 0.09% a year against a 0.38% median for broad industrials funds. Index-fund pricing for index-fund work.
• About 400 holdings spanning large, mid and small US industrials, so defense primes and railroads sit next to smaller machinery and services names.vanguard.com
• Pure index mandate: it follows the MSCI US Investable Market Industrials 25/50 Index and has tracked it very tightly, with no manager stock-picking layered on.
• One of the strongest implementations in the broad US industrials group, a multi-billion-dollar fund trading since 2004 and paying quarterly.

Worth knowing

• RSPN The tilt has a price: 0.40% a year, against 0.08% for XLI and 0.09% for VIS on the cap-weighted side.
• Equal weighting leans harder on the sector's smaller members, so results can drift from cap-weighted industrials benchmarks in either direction.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume heavyweight in its category, which can show up in spreads on larger orders.

• VIS One sector, one cycle. Industrials ride capital spending and freight demand, so this tends to move as a block rather than smooth anything out.
• The small- and mid-cap tail is part of the design, and it adds bumpiness a large-cap-only sector fund would not carry.vanguard.com
• Not the price floor in the group: XLI and FIDU both list 0.08%. One basis point, but worth knowing.

Full RSPN profile⁠

Full VIS profile⁠