ETF comparison
VAW vs XME
Both Materials.
Vanguard Materials Index Fund ETF Shares · State Street SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF
Holdings overlap
27 positions appear in both funds. Buying equal dollars of VAW and XME would leave roughly 23.9% of each dollar exposed to the same underlying securities.
Unmatched is the part of a fund's weight the other fund doesn't match: names only it holds, plus any extra weight it puts in names both funds hold.
Side by side
Sub-score comparison
Tracking quality isn't part of the composite — see what we don't score for why.
Cost difference
VAW is 26 bps cheaper than XME. On a $100,000 position that's about $260/yr more in fees for XME.
Fee figure is the annual expense charged on $100,000. To see how the gap compounds over a multi-decade holding period, open the cost calculator pre-filled with VAW vs XME.
Top shared holdings
27 shared in total| # | Holding | In VAW | In XME | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freeport-McMoRan Inc | 6.06% | 4.26% | 4.26% |
| 2 | Newmont Corp | 7.69% | 4.24% | 4.24% |
| 3 | Nucor Corp | 3.67% | 3.74% | 3.67% |
| 4 | Steel Dynamics Inc | 2.32% | 3.60% | 2.32% |
| 5 | Alcoa Corp | 1.29% | 3.35% | 1.29% |
| 6 | Coeur Mining Inc | 1.28% | 4.46% | 1.28% |
| 7 | Reliance Inc | 1.28% | 3.99% | 1.28% |
| 8 | Royal Gold Inc | 1.22% | 4.26% | 1.22% |
| 9 | Hecla Mining Co | 0.76% | 4.62% | 0.76% |
| 10 | MP Materials Corp | 0.59% | 4.41% | 0.59% |
| 11 | Commercial Metals Co | 0.54% | 3.59% | 0.54% |
| 12 | Cleveland-Cliffs Inc | 0.50% | 3.18% | 0.50% |
Only in VAW
83 total- Linde PLC 14.92%
- CRH PLC 4.68%
- Sherwin-Williams Co/The 4.59%
- Ecolab Inc 4.19%
- Air Products and Chemicals Inc 3.81%
- Corteva Inc 3.40%
- Vulcan Materials Co 2.40%
- Martin Marietta Materials Inc 2.25%
- Amrize Ltd 1.74%
- PPG Industries Inc 1.63%
Only in XME
12 total- Uranium Energy Corp 4.76%
- Centrus Energy Corp 4.60%
- Core Natural Resources Inc 3.69%
- Peabody Energy Corp 3.37%
- Hycroft Mining Holding Corp 2.68%
- Idaho Strategic Resources Inc 0.68%
- Contango Silver & Gold Inc 0.65%
- Ur-Energy Inc 0.63%
- American Battery Technology Co 0.53%
- REalloys Inc 0.52%
Related comparisons
More comparisons with VAW
- VAW vs PICK · iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers ETF 16.6%
- VAW vs GDX · VanEck Gold Miners ETF 11.0%
- VAW vs GUNR · Northern Trust Morningstar Global Upstream Natural Resources ETF 9.2%
- VAW vs COPX · Global X Copper Miners ETF 4.8%
- VAW vs GDXJ · VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF 2.3%
- VAW vs URA · Global X Uranium ETF 0.0%
More comparisons with XME
- XME vs FMAT · Fidelity MSCI Materials Index ETF 22.8%
- XME vs XLB · State Street Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF 15.8%
- XME vs PICK · iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers ETF 15.1%
- XME vs GDX · VanEck Gold Miners ETF 9.9%
- XME vs URA · Global X Uranium ETF 9.0%
- XME vs GDXJ · VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF 8.4%
Percentages are holdings overlap with the named fund.
Open VAW or XME at a brokerage
Both funds trade commission-free at major US brokerages.
Affiliate links — opening an account through these earns PlainIndex a one-time referral. Scoring is computed before any affiliate consideration; see our methodology and funding disclosure.
Holdings overlap is the sum of min(weight_a, weight_b) over positions
matched on ISIN (CUSIP fallback). Methodology: see
/methodology/.
Comparing two funds doesn't endorse swapping one for the other. Tax-lot history, account type, and personal goals matter — PlainIndex publishes data and methodology, not investment advice.