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VCMDX Vanguard Commodity Strategy Fund Admiral Shares

Management style

Active

Asset class

Specialty

Category

Commodities Broad Basket

Risk / reward scale

Start of Risk Scale. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 is less risk less reward, 5 is more risk more reward
The fund risk level is a 5

Less

More

End of Risk Scale.

Expense ratio

0.16%

as of 02/28/2025

30 day SEC yield

1.05%

 

B SEC yield footnote code

 

as of 05/31/2025

Investment minimum

$50,000

as of 06/26/2025

NAV price

$27.53

as of 06/26/2025

Overview

Key facts

CUSIP

921939708

Management style

Active

Asset class

Specialty

Category

Commodities Broad Basket

Inception date

06/25/2019

Fund Number

0517

Ratings

Risk / reward scale

Start of Risk Scale. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 is less risk less reward, 5 is more risk more reward
The fund risk level is a 5

Less

More

End of Risk Scale.
Price

Minimum Investment

$50,000

NAV Price

$27.53

as of 06/26/2025

NAV change

increased$0.13 (0.47%)

as of 06/26/2025

Expense Ratio

0.16%

as of 02/28/2025

Performance

YTD returns

8.26%

as of 06/26/2025

Product summary

This fund’s purpose is to serve investors as a potential hedge against inflation risk and as further diversification for a traditional stock/bond portfolio. The fund will rely on commodity derivative securities to maximize inflation protection by seeking to outperform its benchmark and reduce the long-term volatility of a well-diversified, balanced portfolio. The commodity-linked exposure will be collateralized with a mix of short-term Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) and Treasury bills (T-bills).

Fund management

Vanguard Fixed Income Group

Vanguard Quantitative Equity Group

Performance & fees

Total returns
Month-end/Quarterly Pre-Tax Toggle

as of 05/31/2025

Recent returns

Average annual

Month-end3-Month totalYTD1-yr3-yr5-yr10-yr

Since inception

06/25/2019

VCMDX

-0.67%-0.67%5.11%3.34%-3.85%14.93%—9.44%

Benchmark

-0.58%-1.64%3.05%1.69%-4.37%12.65%1.92%6.61%

as of 03/31/2025

Year1st Qtr2nd Qtr3rd Qtr4th QtrYear-end

Benchmark

202510.46%———— —
20242.47%2.73%1.58%-1.53%5.29% 5.38%
2023-3.33%-4.92%3.10%-2.35%-7.46% -7.91%
202223.98%-6.64%-5.79%4.51%13.96% 16.09%
20217.66%15.42%7.43%1.30%35.23% 27.11%
2020-21.02%8.07%10.62%11.29%5.07% -3.12%
2019——-2.40%5.74%2.99% —

as of 12/31/2024

Year

Capital return by NAV

Income return by NAV

Total return by NAV

Benchmark

20243.00% 2.29%5.29%5.38%
2023-9.69% 2.24%-7.46%-7.91%
2022-0.36% 14.32%13.96%16.09%
20212.58% 32.65%35.23%27.11%
20204.53% 0.54%5.07%-3.12%
20192.36% 0.63%2.99%—

as of 05/31/2025

1-yr3-yr5-yr10-yr

Since inception

06/25/2019

VCMDX3.34% -11.11%100.55% — 70.79%

Benchmark

1.69%-12.54%81.41%20.93%—

Expense ratio

VCMDX

0.16%

Average expense ratio of similar funds2

—

Historical volatility measures
as of 05/31/2025
BenchmarkR-Squared3Beta3
Bloomberg Commodity Index Total Return10.961.06
Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index0.250.40
Fund-specific fees

Purchase fee

None

Fund family redemption fee

None

See Vanguard annual account service fees

The performance data shown represent past performance, which is not a guarantee of future results. Investment returns and principal value will fluctuate so that investors' shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data cited.

Performance data do not reflect the deduction of the $25 annual account service fee that may be applied to certain accounts. If this fee was included, performance would be lower.

Price

Closing price

Closing price as of 06/26/2025

NAV

$27.53

NAV change

increased$0.13 (0.47%)

52-week High

$28.56

as of 06/18/2025

52-week Low

$24.57

as of 09/10/2024

52-week Difference

$3.99 (16.24%)

30 day SEC yield

1.05%

 

B SEC yield footnote code

 

as of 05/31/2025

Historical prices
Chart/Table Toggle
NameDateNAV
VCMDX 06/26/2025
$27.53

This chart can’t be displayed on mobile devices. For the best viewing experience, visit this page from your desktop or laptop.

Portfolio composition

Characteristics

as of 05/31/2025

FundamentalVCMDX
Number of bonds 26
Yield to maturity 0.1%
Average coupon 0.8%
Average effective maturity 1.9 years
Average duration 1.8 years
Turnover rate (Fiscal Year-end 10/31/2024) 51.6%
Weighted exposures

as of 05/31/2025

27.10%Energy
Sectors5VCMDX Benchmark BenchmarkEnergy27.10%26.80%Grains23.20%22.90%Industrial Metals14.80%15.00%Livestock5.60%6.00%Precious Metals22.10%22.10%Softs7.20%7.20%

Weighted equity exposures exclude any temporary cash investments and equity index futures. Some short-term fixed income securities are classified as cash and are excluded from the weighted bond exposures.

Holding details

as of 03/31/2025

Distributions

Realized/Unrealized gains

as of 05/31/2025

Realized gain

-$1.01

% of NAV

decreased-3.79%

Unrealized gains of NAV

$1.48

% of NAV

increased5.54%

Fiscal year end

10/31/2025

Distribution schedule

Annually

How your fund can affect your taxes

A fund's capital gains and losses can reveal the tax implications of holding a particular fund in a taxable account. This is true of both realized and unrealized capital gains and losses.

These tax implications don't apply to investors holding a fund in a tax-deferred account, such as an IRA or employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Learn about realized and unrealized gains and losses

How your fund can affect your taxes

A fund's capital gains and losses can reveal the tax implications of holding a particular fund in a taxable account. This is true of both realized and unrealized capital gains and losses.

These tax implications don't apply to investors holding a fund in a tax-deferred account, such as an IRA or employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Learn about realized and unrealized gains and losses
Dividend income and capital gains
Type$/Share Payable date Record date Reinvest date Reinvest price
Dividend$0.55590012/19/202412/17/202412/18/2024$25.01
Dividend$0.61660012/20/202312/18/202312/19/2023$24.89
Label

Fund management

Vanguard Commodity Strategy Fund seeks to provide broad commodities exposure and capital appreciation. To achieve this objective, the fund’s advisor employs an active investment management approach to invest the fund’s assets, either directly or indirectly through a wholly owned subsidiary, in commodity-linked investments. The fund’s commodity-linked investments are backed by a portfolio of inflation-linked investments and other fixed income securities. The fund’s advisor uses quantitative analysis and professional judgment to select the investments that make up the fund’s investment portfolio. In making such decisions, the advisor must, among other things, monitor and evaluate the expected risks, returns, and correlations of eligible investments, as well as the likelihood that the selected combination of investments will achieve the fund’s investment objective. These decisions are based, in part, upon the advisor’s forecasts, estimates, analysis of historical events, and other aspects of quantitative analysis and professional judgment.

The Vanguard Group
Launched in 1975, The Vanguard Group, Malvern, Pennsylvania, is among the world’s largest equity and fixed income managers. As chief investment officer, Gregory Davis, CFA, oversees Vanguard’s Equity Index, Investment Strategy, Quantitative Equity, and Fixed Income Groups. The group has advised Vanguard Commodity Strategy Fund since 2019.

Vanguard Quantitative Equity Group

Fei Xu
CFA, FRM Portfolio manager.
Advised the fund since 2019. Worked in investment management since 2004. B.S., Peking University. M.B.A., Duke University. M.S., University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Vanguard Fixed Income Group
Sara Devereux, principal and global head of Fixed Income Group, has direct oversight responsibility for all money market, bond, and stable value portfolios managed by the Fixed Income Group. The Fixed Income Group offers actively managed investments in U.S. Treasury, corporate, and tax-exempt securities, as well as passively managed index portfolios. Since 1981, it has refined techniques in total-return management, credit research, and index sampling to seek to deliver consistent performance with transparency and risk control.

Investment Manager Biography

Joshua C. Barrickman
CFA, Principal, Co-Head of Fixed Income Indexing Americas Portfolio manager.
Advised the fund since 2019. Worked in investment management since 1999. B.S., Ohio Northern University. M.B.A., Lehigh University.

Performance & fees

1
Composed of futures contracts and reflects the return for a fully collateralized investment in the Bloomberg Commodity Index. The benchmark combines the return of the Bloomberg Commodity Index with the return on cash collateral invested in 3-month U.S. Treasury bills.
2

Most recent data available. © 2023 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; (3) does not constitute investment advice offered by Morningstar; and (4) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

3

R-squared and beta are calculated from trailing 36-month fund returns relative to the associated benchmark.

Portfolio composition

4

Credit-quality ratings are measured on a scale that generally ranges from AAA (highest) to D (lowest). "NR" is used to classify securities for which a rating is not available. NR securities may include a fund's investment in Vanguard Market Liquidity Fund or Vanguard Municipal Low Duration Fund, each of which invests in high-quality money market instruments and may serve as a cash management vehicle for Vanguard funds, trusts, and accounts. NR may also include derivatives and derivatives offsets. U.S. Treasury, U.S. Agency, and U.S. Agency mortgage-backed securities appear under "U.S. Government". Credit-quality ratings for each issue are obtained from Moody's and S&P, and the higher rating for each issue is used.

5

Sector categories are based on the Global Industry Classification Standard (“GICS”), except for the “Other” category (if applicable), which includes securities that have not been provided a GICS classification as of the effective reporting period.

© 2023 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Vanguard average mutual fund expense ratio: 0.09%. Industry average mutual fund expense ratio: 0.50%. All averages are asset-weighted. Industry average excludes Vanguard. Sources: Vanguard and Morningstar, Inc., as of December 31, 2023.

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.

An investment in the fund could lose money over short, intermediate, or even long periods of time. Returns may vary substantially over time, and there can be no guarantee that the fund will achieve its investment objective or that its investment strategy will succeed. The fund’s investment strategy involves the use of leverage, so its investment program may be considered speculative and is expected to involve considerable risks. The fund could lose money at any time and may underperform the commodities markets during any given period, regardless of whether such markets rise or fall. The fund is subject to the risks described below. Each of these risks, alone or in combination with other risks, has the potential to hurt the fund’s performance, sometimes significantly, and the level of risk may vary based on market conditions. The fund’s performance could be hurt by:

  • Commodity-linked investment risk, which is the chance that the fund could lose all, or substantially all, of its investments in instruments linked to the returns of commodity investments. The commodities markets are volatile, and even a small movement in market prices could cause large losses. Prices of commodity-linked investments have a historically low correlation with the returns of the stock and bond markets and are subject to change based on a variety of factors that may not be anticipated by the fund’s advisor.
  • Derivatives risk. The fund’s direct and indirect commodity-linked investments—such as commodity-linked total return swaps, commodity futures contracts and options on commodity futures contracts, commodity-linked structured notes, exchange-traded commodity pools or funds, and other commodity-linked derivative instruments—subject the fund to risks associated with derivatives. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. The use of derivatives can lead to losses because of adverse movements in the price or value of the underlying commodity or index. Derivative strategies often involve leverage, which may increase a loss, potentially causing the fund to lose more money than it would have lost had it invested in the underlying commodity or index. Also, a liquid market may not always exist for the fund’s derivative positions at times when the fund might wish to terminate or sell such positions. In addition, regulators and futures exchanges have established limits, referred to as position limits, on the maximum net long or net short positions that any person may hold or control in particular derivative contracts. Some contract positions, such as commodity futures contracts, held by the fund and/or the subsidiary may have to be liquidated at disadvantageous times or prices to avoid exceeding such position limits, which could adversely affect the fund’s total return. The use of a derivative subjects the investor to the risk of nonperformance by the counterparty (i.e., counterparty risk), potentially resulting in delayed or partial payment or even nonpayment of amounts due under the derivative contract.
  • Tax risk, which is the chance that the fund’s commodity-linked investments could adversely affect the fund’s status as a regulated investment company.
  • Inflation-linked investment risks. The fund’s annual income distributions are likely to fluctuate considerably. Under certain conditions, the fund may not have any income to distribute. Overall, investors can expect income fluctuations to be high for the fund. The fund is also subject to interest rate risk, which is the chance that the value of a bond will fluctuate because of a change in the level of interest rates. Although inflation-indexed bonds seek to provide inflation protection, their prices may decline when interest rates rise and vice versa.
  • Other fixed income investment risks. To the extent that the fund invests in other fixed income securities, such as cash instruments or short-term bonds, the fund is subject to income risk, credit risk, and call risk.
  • Subsidiary investment risk. The fund is subject to risks associated with subsidiary investments. In particular, because the subsidiary is not organized as a mutual fund and is not registered under any federal or state securities laws (including the Investment Company Act of 1940), it does not offer the same investor protections available to shareholders of registered investment 4 companies. In addition, the tax treatment of the fund’s investment in the subsidiary may be adversely affected by changes in the laws or regulations, or interpretations of existing laws or regulations, of the United States and/or the jurisdiction of the subsidiary. The fund’s ownership of the subsidiary subjects it to the same risks as if it were invested directly in the assets owned by the subsidiary. Risks associated with the subsidiary’s underlying investments have been described elsewhere in the prospectus and include commodity-linked investment risk, derivatives risk, tax risk, inflation-linked investment risks, other fixed income investment risks, and manager risk.
  • Leverage risk, which is the chance that any leveraged losses will exceed the principal amount invested by the fund. Returns from a leveraged investment have the potential to be more volatile than returns from traditional stock and bond investments, which exposes the fund to heightened risks.
  • Manager risk, which is the chance that poor investment selection and/or poor strategy execution will cause the fund and/or the subsidiary to fail to achieve its investment objective or generate lower returns than would be achieved from different investment selections. Poor investment selection by the advisor could also cause the fund to underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with similar investment objectives.
  • Liquidity risk, which is the chance that the markets, assets and instruments in which the fund invests are, or may become, illiquid. There is no assurance that investments that were liquid when purchased will not suddenly become illiquid for an indefinite period of time.