VSDM Vanguard Short Duration Tax-Exempt Bond 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.

The fund is designed for investors with a low tolerance for risk, but you could still lose money by investing in it. The fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the fund's performance, and the level of risk may vary based on market conditions:

• Interest rate risk: The chance that bond prices overall will decline because of rising interest rates.
• Income risk: The chance that the fund's income will decline because of falling interest rates.
• Call risk: The chance that during periods of falling interest rates, issuers of callable bonds may call (redeem) securities with higher coupon rates or interest rates before their maturity dates. The fund would then lose any price appreciation above the bond’s call price and would be forced to reinvest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the fund's income. Such redemptions and subsequent reinvestments would also increase the fund‘s portfolio turnover rate.
• Prepayment risk: The chance that during periods of falling interest rates, homeowners will refinance their mortgages before their maturity dates, resulting in prepayment of mortgage-backed securities held by the fund. The fund would then lose any price appreciation above the mortgage’s principal and would be forced to reinvest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the fund’s income. Such prepayments and subsequent reinvestments would also increase the fund’s portfolio turnover rate.
• Extension risk: The chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall.
• Credit risk: The chance that a bond issuer will fail to pay interest or principal in a timely manner or that negative perceptions of the issuer’s ability to make such payments will cause the price of that bond to decline. In general, credit risk should be relatively low for the fund because it invests primarily in bonds that are considered to be of high quality.
• Liquidity risk: The chance that the fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.
• Manager risk: The chance that poor security selection will cause the fund to underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective. 
• Tax risk: The chance that all or a portion of the tax-exempt income from municipal bonds held by the fund will be declared taxable, possibly with retroactive effect, because of unfavorable changes in tax laws, adverse interpretations by the Internal Revenue Service or state or local tax authorities, or noncompliant conduct of a bond issuer.
• Regional risk: The chance that economic, political, or regulatory occurrences within a certain state may adversely affect the value of securities offered by issuers located within that state. Because the fund may invest a large portion of its assets in securities located in any one state, the fund's performance may be hurt disproportionately by the poor performance of its investments in that area.
• Nondiversification risk: The chance that the fund’s performance may be hurt disproportionately by the poor performance of bonds issued by just a few issuers or even a single issuer. The fund is considered nondiversified, which means that it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in bonds issued by a small number of issuers as compared with diversified funds.