YTD performance of total stock ETF's

[naha66]

Can anybody explain how ytd performance can be from .44 to .58 lower for SPTM compared to ITOT,SCHD,and VTI. These are all total stock market etfs from Ishares, schwab and vanguard. They all have .03 or .04 expense fees. It also trails in the 1 year performance too.

[TropikThunder]

Can anybody explain how ytd performance can be from .44 to .58 lower for SPTM compared to ITOT,SCHD,and VTI. These are all total stock market etfs from Ishares, schwab and vanguard. They all have .03 or .04 expense fees. It also trails in the 1 year performance too.

Where are you looking for returns? Using Yahoo Finance, it shows VTI +2.29%, ITOT +2.26%, SCHB +2.27%, and SPTM +2.28% (you listed SCHD but that's the Dividend Equity ETF). One-year returns are basically identical too (+6.61%, +6.63%, +6.54%, and +6.65% in the same order).

They all follow subtly different Total Stock indexes but have basically identical returns.

[drk]

I'm also curious what you're looking at because Morningstar has SPTM second to VTI among the total market ETFs. That's a link to a growth graph to ensure that you compare apples to apples.

[UpperNwGuy]

Can anybody explain how ytd performance can be from .44 to .58 lower for SPTM compared to ITOT,SCHD,and VTI. These are all total stock market etfs from Ishares, schwab and vanguard. They all have .03 or .04 expense fees. It also trails in the 1 year performance too.

What is the source of your data? Are you using the same source for all the data, or are you trying to compare data from your own holdings of SPTM to Morningstar's data for the other three funds?

[JoMoney]

Be careful where you get your performance data from.
Many financial sites give price only performance, not total return including dividends.
Index Funds are geared to track their index on a total return basis, not necessarily on a price-only basis. There can be big differences on how dividends are paid out/schedule etc... and what instruments a fund uses, some make heavier use of futures and options to synthesize tracking the index total return while not necessarily having the same dividend payout schedule.

[naha66]

I'm using Morningstar performance total return For example VTI shows 4.35 vs 3.77 for SPTM. I meant SCHB instead of SCHD.

[jhfenton]

I'm using Morningstar performance total return For example VTI shows 4.35 vs 3.77 for SPTM. I meant SCHB instead of SCHD.

I see those numbers too. I even checked the end dates, and both are supposedly YTD through 11/30/18. But those are simply wrong. They don't even match M*'s own Growth of 10K charts for the funds. VTI shows YTD Growth of 10K of $10,456.85. STPM shows $10,449.23.

[UpperNwGuy]

So is this a Morningstar problem rather than a real problem?

[TropikThunder]

I'm using Morningstar performance total return For example VTI shows 4.35 vs 3.77 for SPTM. I meant SCHB instead of SCHD.

Ahhh I think that's a glitch with the SPTM market price. The M* page shows it with a -0.50% premium/discount vs the underlying NAV, which can sometimes include odd trade reporting after hours. For example, the final share price shown both on M* and my TDA tracker is $34.04 at like 4:30 PM or so EST, well after regular market hours when the spread can get ridiculous. If you look at the NAV instead of the price, the YTD returns are much closer:
- VTI +4.57%
- ITOT +4.46%
- SCHB +4.47%
- SPTM +4.49%

While the market price indicates what one could buy or sell at, the underlying NAV is a better indicator of the fund performance without the vagaries of daily trading.

I see those numbers too. I even checked the end dates, and both are supposedly YTD through 11/30/18. But those are simply wrong. They don't even match M*'s own Growth of 10K charts for the funds. VTI shows YTD Growth of 10K of $10,456.85. STPM shows $10,449.23.

Those growth of $10k numbers exactly match the NAV YTD's on the performance tab (+4.57% vs +4.49%), which I believe is where they get the growth of $10k numbers from (not from the market price but from the NAV).