VLS 100 Underlying Shareholdings?

Secret2ndAccount

Can anyone point me to a breakdown of the actual stock percentages held in Vanguard LifeStrategy Funds. If you look at the top 10 holdings of VLS 100 it's just another set of Vanguard funds. What I am looking for is a list of the proportion of stocks which make up the top holdings of VLS 100. Some people might call it an X-Ray.
For example, if I look at the FTSE ALL-World Index, I see that it's 1.9% Apple, and 1.9% Microsoft. So, if I buy VWRL, I know what I'm getting. I would like to see a similar listing for VLS 100, and it would be great if it went deeper than just the top 10.
Thanks

dunstonh

Look at the underlying holdings of the funds Vanguard has chosen to revinvest into.

So, if I buy VWRL, I know what I'm getting. I would like to see a similar listing for VLS 100

VWRL buys shares.  VLS100 buys funds.

MX5huggy

The top ten is 100% just look at the list for each fund, they tell you everything.

Secret2ndAccount

dunstonh said:

Look at the underlying holdings of the funds Vanguard has chosen to revinvest into.

MX5huggy said:

The top ten is 100% just look at the list for each fund, they tell you everything.

Yes, I realise I can do that, but I see 3 issues:
1. I will feel like an idiot if I do all the work, then find out that someone is already posting good answers on the internet.
2. I would be compounding errors. The holdings percentage tables are always an out-of-date snapshot of a fund, but you are suggesting adding together samples which were potentially taken at very different times, each weighted by a percentage snapshot that was taken on yet a different day. This makes the result even less accurate.
3. If a stock sits just outside the top ten of two or three sub-funds, it might not show up in any of the ten top tens, but could still add up to a spot well inside the overall top 10 of the parent fund.

I would really like to look deeper than top 10. If all I want is top 10, I can probably get close by taking the top 10 of the S&P500 and dividing by 2

NannaH

It took me 4 clicks on the Vanguard site to find the info.
Find the fund then click on portfolio data,   You can then find out every holding on every fund in vls 100 by looking at the portfolio data on each fund.  An hour’s work maybe.  

Secret2ndAccount

Thanks, but the holdings data on the Vanguard site is presented in a format which cannot be copied/pasted nor exported, or viewed as source code. So I would be looking at hand transcribing each name and percentage with the errors that would undoubtedly introduce. Just for the first sub-fund, that's over 4000 lines of typing - maybe 3-5 hours work. Times ten for the whole set.
Not sure I want to know that badly.
If we've got any data mining specialists out there who could point me to some good screen scraping software, I would be interested in learning to use it. Could be a fun project.

Audaxer

Secret2ndAccount said:

Thanks, but the holdings data on the Vanguard site is presented in a format which cannot be copied/pasted nor exported, or viewed as source code. So I would be looking at hand transcribing each name and percentage with the errors that would undoubtedly introduce. Just for the first sub-fund, that's over 4000 lines of typing - maybe 3-5 hours work. Times ten for the whole set.
Not sure I want to know that badly.

As you say, it would take a very long time, but not sure why you would need to get down to that level of detail. However looking at that first sub-fund, the US Equity Index fund with over 4,000 shares, the largest holding, Apple, represents 5.48% of the fund. As the sub-fund is 19.5% of VLS100,  Apple represents only 1.07% of VLS100. If you just go down to the 11th largest holding, it is 0.90% of the US Equity Index fund, and only represents 0.18% of VLS100. If you flick down a few more pages of shares of this sub-fund, the percentages of VLS100 when calculated are really miniscule, so not sure what useful info such drilled-down data would give you.

I own a couple of VLS funds and have never even thought about drilling down to that level of detail.

MX5huggy

Audaxer said:

Secret2ndAccount said:

Thanks, but the holdings data on the Vanguard site is presented in a format which cannot be copied/pasted nor exported, or viewed as source code. So I would be looking at hand transcribing each name and percentage with the errors that would undoubtedly introduce. Just for the first sub-fund, that's over 4000 lines of typing - maybe 3-5 hours work. Times ten for the whole set.
Not sure I want to know that badly.

As you say, it would take a very long time, but not sure why you would need to get down to that level of detail. However looking at that first sub-fund, the US Equity Index fund with over 4,000 shares, the largest holding, Apple, represents 5.48% of the fund. As the sub-fund is 19.5% of VLS100,  Apple represents only 1.07% of VLS100. If you just go down to the 11th largest holding, it is 0.90% of the US Equity Index fund, and only represents 0.18% of VLS100. If you flick down a few more pages of shares of this sub-fund, the percentages of VLS100 when calculated are really miniscule, so not sure what useful info such drilled-down data would give you.

I own a couple of VLS funds and have never even thought about drilling down to that level of detail.

While I agree it’s seems a fairly pointless exercise. The conclusion of it is that LS100 covers the vast majority of the tradable world stock market with a UK over weight. 

Just looking at Apple it’s also 4.28% of the 3rd fund which is 19.3% of LS100 so 0.83% and 6.67% of the S&P 500 fund which is 15.1% of LS100 so 1.01%. Total Apple in LS 100 is therefore 2.9% 
Which as expected is a bit less than in VWRL at 3.77% because of the UK over weight in LS100. 

[Deleted User]

I think its an interesting  exercise to do for the whole portfolio.  I did get a couple of minor surprises among my “top 10”.  

Morningstar has an X-ray function which does that.  You need to sign up; believe its free for a limited period of time. https://www.morningstar.com/instant-x-ray

arnoldy

I always wondered if the VLS 100 charges were higher than advertised because it is a "fund of fund" with each layer of funds having its own charges, but all you are quoted is the top level of charge?

[Deleted User]

arnoldy said:

I always wondered if the VLS 100 charges were higher than advertised because it is a "fund of fund" with each layer of funds having its own charges, but all you are quoted is the top level of charge?

The short answer is “no”. There is only one level of charge for all “funds of funds”.