Author Topic: Vanguard 500  (Read 2732 times)

caracarn

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Vanguard 500
« on: August 09, 2017, 11:35:10 AM »
Not sure if this is the right topic area, but seemed at least a partial fit.

Does Vanguard 500 Index Fund only trade weekly?  I ask because I recently was eligible to join my new employer's 401k and this is 100% of my holding in it.  I've been in it for six weeks and when I look at the chart in Personal Capital I see a series of plateaus, one week apart when I have mine and my employer contribution go in and then it stay perfectly flat until the next week.  My IRA held with Vanguard does not do that, I see little spikes or valleys nearly every day.  I do not however hold Vanguard 500 in any of my other holdings.  My taxable portfolio has just two Vanguard funds in it (one stock and one bond) but it moves daily.  Just a weird occurrence that I noticed so wondering if I missed some unique feature in Vanguard 500. 

RWD

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Re: Vanguard 500
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2017, 11:55:09 AM »
The Vanguard 500 should move daily:
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VFIAX?ltr=1

Is Personal Capital only updating the price when your contributions go in?

Dollar Slice

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Re: Vanguard 500
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2017, 11:56:32 AM »
Are you sure it's *perfectly* flat?

I also have a newish 401(k) with Vanguard 500 in it, and it looks similar to what you're describing... but it's not because there are no changes, it's because the changes of 1% or .5% are not noticeable in the chart when you are putting big lumps of money in every week (or biweekly in my case). You can't really see the fraction-of-a-percent wiggles up and down when you're comparing it to the big bumps caused by increasing your investment by 20% in one go.

I'll attach my chart from Mint. If you look closely you can see that there are little slopes or wiggles between the big chunks of money going in.

caracarn

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Re: Vanguard 500
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2017, 03:11:01 PM »
It could be.  I am only adding $200/week so much lower amounts than you so those small changes I guess would be even smaller.  Even if I squint as the chart and look real hard it seems to have zero wiggles but maybe they are there.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Vanguard 500
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2017, 03:52:19 PM »
Does Personal Capital let you see the exact balance of the account day to day? You could just check in every day for a week and see if the amount is changing slightly each day or if it stays exactly the same for a week.

caracarn

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Re: Vanguard 500
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2017, 09:43:27 AM »
Does Personal Capital let you see the exact balance of the account day to day? You could just check in every day for a week and see if the amount is changing slightly each day or if it stays exactly the same for a week.
No it does not in a table.  You need to slowly slide the pointer along the graph and it will change.  I did that with a week long and then a two week long piece to that it was easier to slide along to specific days versus the 90 day version that is the default.  It shows things like -$0 from time to time so it seems like the changes were less than a dollar is my guess.