SCHM vs VO

SCHMASchwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF

VOAVanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF

In short

SCHM The forgotten middle of the US market, for three basis points. SCHM has tracked the Dow Jones U.S. Mid-Cap Total Stock Market Index since 2011, holding roughly 500 companies at a fee nobody in the category undercuts.

VO The plain middle of the US market for three basis points. VO owns roughly 300 stocks sitting between the 70th and 85th percentile of investable market cap, each at index weight, with buffer bands that slow the churn at the edges.

Stated mandate

SCHM The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Dow Jones U.S. Mid-Cap Total Stock Market Index.

VO The fund seeks to track the CRSP US Mid Cap Index by investing in its U.S. mid-cap stocks through passive, full replication.

Why people hold it

• SCHM 0.03% a year, 30 cents per $100. That ties VO for the lowest fee in the mid-cap group and runs well below the category's typical charge.schwabassetmanagement.com
• Pure index plumbing: no stock picking, no tilts. The fund has tracked its benchmark closely, which is the whole job description here.
• Roughly 500 mid-sized US companies, so no single name carries the fund. Broad enough to be a one-ticket middle slice.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund trading since 2011 and among the stronger builds in its peer group, with active daily volume and tight handling.

• VO Costs 0.03% a year against a 0.15% median for mid-cap peers, matching SCHM as the cheapest in the group and undercutting IWR by a wide margin.
• Full replication, not sampling: it holds the index's roughly 300 names at index weight, and its tracking is among the tightest in the mid-cap group.vanguard.com
• Trading since 2004 as a share class of Vanguard's Mid-Cap Index Fund, it has grown into one of the largest and most actively traded mid-cap index funds.sec.gov
• CRSP draws the mid-cap line by percentage of market cap, not a fixed stock count, with buffer zones at the edges so companies migrate gradually rather than jumping buckets.crsp.orgbogleheads.org

Worth knowing

• SCHM Mid-caps swing harder than blue chips. This is full, undampened exposure to that middle tier, with nothing built in to soften rough stretches.
• Every provider draws the mid-cap line differently. The Dow Jones index here won't hold the same names as a Russell or Morningstar mid-cap fund, so overlap with what you own varies.
• Distributions land quarterly, and they're a byproduct of the index, not the point. This is a growth-of-capital vehicle, not an income one.

• VO Mid caps move harder than blue chips, and Vanguard flags that: the fund sits at the top of its own 1-to-5 risk scale.vanguard.com
• One band of the market by design. No mega caps, no small caps, so it covers the middle rather than the whole US market.crsp.org
• About 300 stocks is a narrower net than a total-market fund casts, and sector weights are simply whatever the middle of the market looks like at the time.

Full SCHM profile⁠

Full VO profile⁠