Under The Hood: All The Small Caps You Can Handle With This ETF

Small-caps can equal big returns in the right environment, but stock-picking in this asset class can be dicey. That's one advantage of ETFs. Let the fund do the heavy lifting for you. And if it's international small-caps you're after, you're in luck. ETF issuers have brought country-specifc small-cap funds tracking emering markets such as Brazil, China and India to market and all have proven wildly popular. Still want developed market exposure? There are small-cap funds tracking the likes of Australia, Canada and Japan. But if you want to put the developed and emerging markets small-cap theme together in one fund while excluding U.S. small-caps, your best bet may be the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US SmallCap Index ETF (NYSE: VSS). VSS holds a simply stunning 2,667 stocks, so don't worry about being overexposed to just a couple of stocks. In fact, VSS's top-10 holdings only account for 3.9% of the ETF's weight. In terms geographic allocation, Europe accounts for almost 42% of the fund's weight, while what Vanguard calls emerging markets come in at almost 24%. While VSS holds an enormous amount of stocks, more than 28% are materials and another 17% are financials. Be advised that those materials names are primarily mining companies like El Dorado Gold (NYSE: EGO), Ivanhoe Mines (NYSE: IVN) and Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW). In other words, it might appear that VSS would be a good ETF for short-term trading. Well, it might be from time-to-time, but low volume works against that premise. That said, VSS has over $692 million in assets, so it's not going anywhere and like so many Vanguard funds, VSS features an expense ratio that is far lower than comparable funds. At 0.4%, VSS has lower fees than 75% of comparable funds, according to Vanguard's Web site. The bottom line with VSS is that it is an ideal way for an indecisive investor to get global small-cap exposure. Can't pick a stock or a country, but know that you want some foreign small-caps in your portfolio? Consider VSS.