The most common investments held in Vanguard accounts are mutual funds and ETFs (from Vanguard and other fund families) and individual stocks, bonds, options, and CDs.

What are Vanguard index funds? Vanguard index funds are a type of mutual fund where thousands of investors pool their cash to purchase shares in a fund that mimics a benchmark index, such as the S&P 500 (hence the name “index fund”).

Vanguard uses index sampling to track a benchmark index without necessarily having to replicate the holdings in the entire index. This allows the company to keep the fund expenses low. It is more expensive to hold every stock or bond in an index.

Vanguard 500 Index Fund seeks to track the investment performance of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, an unmanaged benchmark representing U.S. large-capitalization stocks.

Investment product is the umbrella term for all the stocks, bonds, options, derivatives and other financial instruments that people put money into in hopes of earning profits.

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An index is a group or basket of securities, derivatives, or other financial instruments that represents and measures the performance of a specific market, asset class, market sector, or investment strategy.

Index funds have lower expenses and fees than actively managed funds. Index funds follow a passive investment strategy. Index funds seek to match the risk and return of the market based on the theory that in the long term, the market will outperform any single investment.

Index investing strategy is the trading technique of using index funds to build a portfolio. It's a passive investment strategy that helps investors build wealth with less expense.

Index investing is a form of passive investing The goal with mutual funds is to beat the market, while the goal with index funds is simply to match the market's performance. Since index funds don't require daily human management, they have lower management costs (called “expense ratios”) than mutual funds.

Overall, Vanguard has a good selection for retirement investors, but active traders may want more options such as forex and futures trading. The platform also has a limited offering of fractional shares, which allow investors to start off on higher-priced equities with a low buy-in.

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) Historically, VOO has also provided very good results, with an annualized 10-year return of 11.9% as of Sept. 30 that closely tracks its benchmark, the S&P 500 index.