Hello,
Had a quick question - perhaps a stupid one - but one I'd like some help answering. For yesterday, I show VTSAX going up by 2.61%. But when I looked at the Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ, all three of them went up more than that..like say 2.85% to 3% (rough numbers, didn't jot them down...suffice it to say, EACH more than 2.61%). I notice on many days that VTSAX does not 100% track with what occurs in the markets, but to think that a total stock market fund would go up 10%+/- less than the markets that comprise its holdings surprises me.
I think I probably just have a poor understanding of what VTSAX holds. If I'm not mistaken, it holds stocks "representative" of the whole market, rather than "all" of the market. Again, just seems like that's a very wide gap, which I realize is only one day's worth of valuation, so probably not the best indicator either way. But I do see this from time to time, and it's probably time to actually understand it for myself since I have been pouring money in for years and continue to do so.
Thanks!