# Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a simple, broad core holding that covers the whole US stock market instead of a few large companies, and that people have held for years.

## Why people recommend it

- Covers whole market, not few giants (3 comments): "It's based on the total market and not artificially limited to a small number of large companies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48325734)) "But for those decrying the shenanigans crsp and vti are the example to go with." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48925537)) "You can sidestep this entirely with a total-market fund like VTSAX/VTI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48325669))
- Simple core position people hold (3 comments): "Hold a cap weighted index as the core position." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48393419)) "Same thing I've been doing for 15 years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45974472)) "A Vanguard total market fund is fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49139437))
- Easy and efficient to buy (2 comments): "ETF's make this easy and efficient." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49541208)) "Participation is not rigged with eg VTI/ITOT and VXUS/IXUS and a long enough time horizon." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49468435))
- Blended to reduce volatility (2 comments): "I also blend in VTI to cut the volatility a bit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48327539)) "is a safer bet than being too much in tech" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48364188))

## What people warn about

- Index rule changes may hurt it (2 comments): "VTI lists fast even before these recent changes as I recall. So it's more vulnerable, not less." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48325685)) "The index they use is altering the rules." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48325852))
- Some say it should be dropped (2 comments): "it might be finally time to call it quits and leave VTI behind" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654727)) "One of the things that makes the system broken these days is no one has time to do what he did." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46451431))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [S&P 500 index fund](https://hackerapproved.com/p/s-p-500-index.md): 28 recommend
- [Invesco QQQ Trust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qqq.md): 11 recommend
- [Vanguard S&P 500 ETF](https://hackerapproved.com/p/voo.md): 10 recommend
- [Vanguard S&P 500 ETF](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vanguard-s-p-500-etf.md): 9 recommend
- [Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vanguard-total-stock-market-index-fund.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF", https://hackerapproved.com/p/vanguard-total-stock-market-etf/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).