Prospectus

How to download the prospectus for a Vanguard fund from Vanguard's website (as of August, 2010):

1) Go to Vanguard mutual funds

2) Where it says "Enter name or symbol," type a part of the name or a symbol; for example "total." IMPORTANT: Wait for a list of matches to drop down; sometimes this may take five or ten seconds. 3) Click on the desired fund, in this case "Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund." The fund's summary page will appear.

4) On the first page of the fund description, you will see a link: "View Prospectus and Reports." Click on it.



You will see a list of choices. Two suggested documents are the "statutory prospectus" and whichever report, annual or semiannual, is more recent.



The "statutory prospectus" tells you the fund's rules ("Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in the stocks that make up its target index," "The Fund, in most cases, will... [invest] directly in common stocks. However, the Fund reserves the right to obtain economic exposure to component securities indirectly by purchasing depositary receipts of the component securities," "The Fund may invest in ... stock futures and options contracts, warrants, convertible securities, and swap agreements, all of which are types of derivatives.... The Fund will not use derivatives for speculation or ... leveraging").

The annual/semiannual reports include a list of what it actually did invest in.

The files are PDF files. You may need to install Adobe's free "Acrobat Reader" to read them. How your browser downloads them may vary.