What are the "Alternatives" in VXUS?

[El Gringo]

So when I look at my asset allocation on Personal Capital, I have 2.92% in "Other" (see screen shot). This apparently IS NOT cash, real estate, commodities, gold, etc. It's under my VXUS fund. Any one have any idea what it is?

[forummm]

They might be index futures. Vanguard uses them to provide instant exposure to the indexed stocks without necessarily having to buy them (if the stocks are somewhat illiquid or the bid/ask is too high, etc). It saves them from buying and selling thousands of stocks too much as people buy and sell the funds. It puts your money to work right away when you make a deposit and still allows a cash pool for redemptions. It helps them track the index more closely.

You can see exactly with VTIAX/VXUS is holding:
https://personal.vanguard.com/funds/reports/q1130.pdf?2210096820