VAW Vanguard Materials ETF

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Vanguard ETFs as a share class: Vanguard ETFs® (exchange-traded funds) are a class of shares listed for trading on an exchange. The shares are available only through a broker, including Vanguard Brokerage Services®.

Vanguard ETF® Shares are not redeemable with the issuing fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. Instead, investors must buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market and hold those shares in a brokerage account. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling.

Total returns: Short-term total return information is provided only as a service. Historical performance—particularly short-term performance—is no guarantee of future returns. Price, yield, and return on an actual investment will fluctuate, and you may have a gain or loss when you sell. Average annual returns include changes in price and reinvestments of dividends and capital gains. Since-inception returns for less than 1 year and year-to-date returns aren't annualized. Index performance is provided as a benchmark but isn't illustrative of any particular investment. You can't invest in an index.

Standardized returns: To see quarterly fee-adjusted returns, refer to the Price & Performance details.

Expense ratios: Expense ratios are displayed on Overview. For investments that are less than 1 fiscal year old, expense ratios are estimated.

Risk: All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Funds that concentrate on a relatively narrow market sector face the risk of higher share-price volatility. Investments in stocks or bonds issued by non-U.S. companies are subject to risks including country/regional risk and currency risk.

Vanguard average ETF expense ratio: 0.05%. Industry average ETF expense ratio: 0.22%. All averages are asset-weighted. Industry average excludes Vanguard. Sources: Vanguard and Morningstar, Inc., as of December 31, 2023.

An investment in the fund could lose money over short or even long periods. You should expect the fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range, like the fluctuations of the overall stock market. Although Materials ETF is listed for trading on the NYSE Arca, it is possible that an active trading market may not be maintained. Trading of Materials ETF on the NYSE Arca may be halted if NYSE Arca officials deem such action appropriate, if Materials ETF is delisted from the NYSE Arca, or if the activation of marketwide “circuit breakers” halts stock trading generally. The fund’s performance could be hurt by:

• Stock market risk: The chance that stock prices overall will decline. Stock markets tend to move in cycles, with periods of rising stock prices and periods of falling stock prices. The fund’s target index may, at times, become focused in stocks of a particular sector, category, or group of companies. Because the fund seeks to track its target index, the fund may underperform the overall stock market.
• Sector risk: The chance that significant problems will affect a particular sector, or that returns from that sector will trail returns from the overall stock market. Daily fluctuations in specific market sectors are often more extreme or volatile than fluctuations in the overall market. Because the fund invests all, or substantially all, of its assets in the materials sector, the fund’s performance largely depends—for better or for worse—on the general condition of that sector. Companies in the materials sector could be affected by, among other things, commodity prices, government regulation, inflation expectations, resource availability, and economic cycles. Sector risk is expected to be high for the fund.
• Nondiversification risk: The chance that the fund’s performance may be hurt disproportionately by the poor performance of relatively few stocks or even a single stock. The fund is considered nondiversified, which means that it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a small number of issuers as compared with other mutual funds. Because the fund tends to invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in its ten largest holdings, fluctuations in the market value of a single fund holding could cause significant changes to the fund’s share price. Nondiversification risk is expected to be high for the fund.
• Investment style risk: The chance that returns from the types of stocks in which the fund invests will trail returns from the overall stock market. Small-, mid-, and large-cap stocks each tend to go through cycles of doing better—or worse—than other segments of the stock market or the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years. Historically, small- and mid-cap stocks have been more volatile in price than large-cap stocks. Small and mid-size companies tend to have greater stock volatility because, among other things, these companies are more sensitive to changing economic conditions.
• Index replicating risk, which is the chance that the fund may be prevented from holding one or more securities in the same proportion as in its target index.
• Index-related risks: The fund is subject to risks associated with index investing, which include passive management risk, tracking error risk, and index provider risk. Passive management risk is the chance that the fund's use of an indexing strategy will negatively impact the fund's performance. Because the fund seeks to track the performance of its target index regardless of how that index is performing, the fund's performance may be lower than it would be if the fund were actively managed. Tracking error risk is the chance that the fund's performance will deviate from the performance of its target index. Tracking error risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or under other unusual market conditions. Index provider risk is the chance that the fund will be negatively impacted by changes or errors made by the index provider. Any gains, losses, or costs associated with or resulting from an error made by the index provider will generally be borne by the fund and, as a result, the fund's shareholders.