SPSM vs VBR: Performance, Holdings, Fees & Risk
SPSM and VBR are ETFs, but they can differ materially in exposure, yield, fees and risk. SPSM is State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 600 Small Cap ETF, while VBR is Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF. VBR is broader by holdings count, with 845 positions versus 610 for SPSM. SPSM has the lower expense ratio. Current AlgovestIQ evidence has VBR ahead on AIQ Score, 65 versus 61.
What is the main difference between SPSM and VBR?
SPSM and VBR have little in common: 21% of their weight is in the same securities.
| Metric | SPSM | VBR |
|---|---|---|
| Fund | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.03% | 0.05% |
| Holdings | 610 | 845 |
| Top-10 concentration | 5.4% | 5.6% |
| Distribution yieldTrailing 12 months | 1.54% | 1.85% |
| Average volume | 1,794,484 | 260,170 |
| Performance | ||
| 1Y return | +16.5% | +16.4% |
| YTD return | +14.2% | +12.8% |
| 5Y annualized returnTotal return, distributions reinvested | +5.5% | +8.1% |
| Risk | ||
| Annualized volatility | 15.8% | 14% |
| Max drawdown (1Y) | -10% | -8.8% |
| Max drawdown (5Y)Total return, distributions reinvested | -27.9% | -24.2% |
| Beta | 0.94 | 0.77 |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.81 | 0.86 |
| Sortino ratio | 1.42 | 1.51 |
| AlgovestIQ | ||
| AIQ Score | 61/100 | 65/100 |
| AIQ Edge Score | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Momentum | 54/100 | 66/100 |
| Risk Resilience | 82/100 | 83/100 |
AlgovestIQ AIQ Comparison
State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 600 Small Cap ETF vs Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF
VBR leads
VBR leads by 4 AIQ points, primarily on Momentum, having only recently taken the lead back from SPSM.
Fragile: 2 of 4 evidence groups support VBR, the lead recently changed hands, and its current signal state is conflicted.
State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 600 Small Cap ETF
Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF
The Algovestiq AIQ Score currently favors VBR over SPSM, 65 versus 61 as of Oct 21, 2026. VBR's advantage is driven primarily by stronger momentum. VBR also shows the stronger technical structure relative to its 50-day moving average. 2 of 4 covered evidence groups favor VBR today, and the comparison is rated Fragile on stability: the AIQ gap is narrow at 4 points. VBR lead: Reversed — SPSM led by 1 AIQ points 30 sessions ago; VBR now leads by 4.
Compare State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 600 Small Cap ETF and Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF across performance, expense ratio, dividend yield, drawdown, volatility and the Algovestiq AIQ Score.
SPSM vs VBR: which fits what
Each row is settled by a single measure. Where the gap is too small to matter it reads Similar, and no row decides the comparison as a whole.
| If you want | SPSM | VBR | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower costExpense ratio | 0.03% | 0.05% | SPSM |
| Broader diversificationNumber of holdings | 610 | 845 | VBR |
| Lower concentrationWeight of the 10 largest holdings | 5.4% | 5.6% | Similar |
| Higher incomeTrailing 12-month distribution yield | 1.54% | 1.85% | VBR |
| Smaller drawdownsMax drawdown, 5 years | -27.9% | -24.2% | VBR |
| Lower volatilityAnnualized volatility, 1 year | 15.8% | 14% | VBR |
Similar means the gap is within 0.01 percentage points of expense ratio, 25% more holdings, 3 points of top-10 weight, 0.2 points of yield, 2 points of drawdown or 1 point of volatility. Past drawdowns and volatility describe the funds’ history, not their future.
Performance over time
Total return with distributions reinvested, from daily closes for both ETFs.
Total return comparison
Growth of $10,000, distributions reinvested
Split-adjusted closes; each distribution is reinvested at the close on its ex-dividend date. Taxes and trading costs are not modeled.
Compare SPSM and VBR against another ticker
Open a multi-ticker workspace without changing this focused pair page.
AIQ Factor Divergence
Where the two separate, on the four dimensions behind the AIQ Score. Bars read outward from a shared zero: further from the centre is a wider gap.
- Momentum54 vs 66VBR +12
- Value57 vs 60Even
- Quality61 vs 59Even
- Risk Resilience82 vs 83Even
2 of 4 evidence groups favor VBR. VBR’s edge is concentrated in momentum.
What changed since the last close
Latest scored session 2026-10-20, compared against the prior scored session 2026-10-19.
Largest factor move: Momentum +16
No signal started or stopped since the prior session; its 4 active signals are unchanged.
Largest factor move: Momentum +10
New signals
- BB Upper Band Breach — bearish, volatility, short horizon
VBR's lead narrowed by 1 AIQ point in the latest session.
Deeper signal detail for each name lives on its own signals page — SPSM and VBR both carry a full feed there.
Fund facts, side by side
Two funds tracking overlapping universes are separated by cost and risk far more than by holdings. Those lead here.
| Measure | SPSM | VBR | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expense ratio | 0.03% | 0.05% | Lower is better — it compounds against you every year you hold. |
| Holdings | 610 | 845 | More holdings means broader diversification, not better returns. |
| Average volume | 1,794,484 | 260,170 | Liquidity — matters most if you trade size. |
| Annualized volatility | 15.8% | 14% | Lower is a steadier ride for the same exposure. |
| Max drawdown (1Y) | -10% | -8.8% | The worst peak-to-trough loss over the past year. |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.81 | 0.86 | Return per unit of risk. Higher is better. |
| Beta | 0.94 | 0.77 | Sensitivity to the broad market. Neither direction is better — it depends on the role in your portfolio. |
Where the exposure actually sits
Sector exposure for each fund, ordered by the size of the difference.
How much of the same holdings they own
SPSM and VBR share 20.71% of their weighted exposure across 339 common holdings.
269 holdings are unique to SPSM, and 499 holdings are unique to VBR. Owning both is genuinely additive — most of the capital sits in different securities.
VBR is the more concentrated of the two: its ten largest positions are 5.58% of the fund, against 5.43% for SPSM (845 holdings vs 610). Concentration cuts both ways — it is what drives outperformance when the top names work, and what makes the drawdown deeper when they do not.
Largest shared positions
| Holding | SPSM | VBR | Shared |
|---|---|---|---|
| VSATVIASAT INC | 0.57% | 0.21% | 0.21% |
| LNCLINCOLN NATIONAL CORP | 0.42% | 0.19% | 0.19% |
| ESIELEMENT SOLUTIONS INC | 0.45% | 0.18% | 0.18% |
| JXNJACKSON FINANCIAL INC A | 0.55% | 0.18% | 0.18% |
| ZWSZURN ELKAY WATER SOLUTIONS C | 0.39% | 0.17% | 0.17% |
| EMNEASTMAN CHEMICAL CO | 0.45% | 0.17% | 0.17% |
| SMSM ENERGY CO | 0.5% | 0.17% | 0.17% |
| TRNOTERRENO REALTY CORP | 0.39% | 0.16% | 0.16% |
Shared weight is the lower of the two positions — the portion of capital both funds genuinely have in the same security.
What SPSM adds that VBR doesn’t
| Holding | SPSM | VBR |
|---|---|---|
| CORTCORCEPT THERAPEUTICS INC | 0.63% | Not held |
| VSATVIASAT INC | 0.57% | 0.21% |
| GKOSGLAUKOS CORP | 0.57% | Not held |
| MTCHMATCH GROUP INC | 0.56% | Not held |
| JXNJACKSON FINANCIAL INC A | 0.55% | 0.18% |
| EATBRINKER INTERNATIONAL INC | 0.53% | Not held |
What VBR adds that SPSM doesn’t
| Holding | VBR | SPSM |
|---|---|---|
| JBLJabil Inc | 0.71% | Not held |
| TPRTapestry Inc | 0.66% | Not held |
| ATOAtmos Energy Corp | 0.61% | Not held |
| NRGNRG Energy Inc | 0.6% | Not held |
| WSMWilliams-Sonoma Inc | 0.57% | Not held |
| SWSmurfit Westrock PLC | 0.51% | Not held |
Each list is a fund’s largest positions by weight that the other fund does not hold, or holds at less than half the weight.
SPSM vs VBR: five-year payout growth
SPSM grew its split-adjusted payout faster over 2020-2025 — 12.59% a year against VBR's 11.61%. VBR never reduced its annual distribution in the window; SPSM did in 2 years. SPSM: The 2020 payout was 19.1% below 2019, so the growth rate measures a recovery from a weak starting year. SPSM: The payout jumped 50.1% in 2021, a single step rather than steady compounding - often an index or mandate change. VBR: The 2020 payout was 15.4% below 2019, so the growth rate measures a recovery from a weak starting year.
| Dividend metric | SPSM | VBR |
|---|---|---|
| 5Y payout CAGR | 12.59% | 11.61% |
| 2020 annual payout | $0.418 | $2.389 |
| 2025 annual payout | $0.757 | $4.137 |
| Calendar-year declines | 2 | 0 |
| Peer rank | #45 of 138 | #48 of 138 |
Split-adjusted annual distributions, 2020–2025. Research as of Sep 19, 2026. Yield and expense ratio above are current values, not part of this window.
AIQ Agreement Matrix
2 of 4 covered evidence groups favor VBR. A wide gap backed by one group is a weaker case than a narrow gap backed by five.
| Evidence group | Favors | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| AIQ Score | VBR | 61 vs 65 |
| Fundamentals | Not covered | Not covered |
| Valuation | Even | Value 57 vs 60 |
| Technicals | VBR | Price vs 50-day -2.8% vs -0.8%; vs 200-day 0.7% vs 2.2% |
| Risk Resilience | Even | Risk Resilience 82 vs 83 |
| Analyst expectations | Not covered | Not covered |
✓ agrees with the overall verdict · ✕ points the other way. Groups marked “not covered” lack data on one or both of SPSM and VBR and are excluded from the count.
AIQ Decision Stability
The conclusion is sensitive to small changes. Treat the lead as provisional and watch the flip conditions below.
- The AIQ gap is narrow at 4 points. (argues the conclusion is provisional)
- Only 2 of 4 covered evidence groups agree. (argues the conclusion is provisional)
- The lead has already changed hands inside the comparison window. (argues the conclusion is provisional)
- The lead has been steady session to session. (supports the conclusion holding)
- The leader is throwing conflicting signals. (argues the conclusion is provisional)
Stability combines the score gap, how broadly the evidence agrees, how steady the lead has been across daily snapshots, the current signal state on both names, and analyst dispersion on VBR.
How the comparison changed
120 daily snapshots · Jun 21 – Oct 20VBR lead: Reversed — SPSM led by 1 AIQ points 30 sessions ago; VBR now leads by 4.
- Today
- VBR +4
- 61 vs 65
- 7 sessions ago
- VBR +1
- 59 vs 60
- 30 sessions ago
- SPSM +1
- 56 vs 55
- 90 sessions ago
- SPSM +1
- 64 vs 63
The lead changed hands 5 times in this window, most recently on Sep 9 when SPSM moved ahead of VBR.
AIQ Signal Divergence
Only the signals that bear on the head-to-head. A conflicted name is carrying bullish and bearish rules at the same time — the technical evidence is not pointing one way.
2 bullish / 0 bearish / 2 neutral
No signal that the other name lacks.
2 bullish / 1 bearish / 2 neutral, conflicted
Only VBR
- BB Upper Band Breach — bearish, volatility, short horizon
Both carry 4 more signals that do not separate them: Bollinger Band Squeeze, Golden Cross Active, ATR Contraction - Coiling, MACD Bullish Crossover.
VBR leads the comparison while carrying a conflicted signal state, which is one reason the stability rating is not higher.
Price vs model alignment
Whether the latest session's price move confirms what the model did over the same session, or contradicts it.
Neither the price nor the AIQ Score moved enough in the latest session to confirm or contradict the other (price +0.06%, AIQ +4 points).
Price and the AIQ Score both moved up over the latest session (price +0.21%, AIQ +3 points).
What would flip this result
A state, not a forecast. These are the specific, observable changes that would reverse the verdict — not a price prediction.
- 1SPSM closes the Momentum gap — currently 12 points behind, the largest single contributor to VBR's edge.
- 2SPSM's Bollinger Band Squeeze turns directional — it is neutral today and would confirm a change in trend.
- 3VBR's conflicting signal state resolves bearish — it currently carries 2 bullish and 1 bearish rules at once.
- 4A regime shift changes factor weighting — Quality and Value carry the heaviest weights in the composite, so a rotation toward either would move the result most.
The full evidence
Every number behind the verdict. The leader is called above each group so you are not left to solve it from the table.
Performance
VBR leads 4 of 6 windows| Metric | SPSM | VBR |
|---|---|---|
| 1 week (5 sessions) | 0.1% | 1.4% |
| 1 month (20 sessions) | -1.4% | 0% |
| 3 months (63 sessions) | -5.6% | -2.1% |
| 6 months (126 sessions) | 1.8% | 2.9% |
| Year to date | 14.2% | 12.8% |
| 1 year (252 sessions) | 16.5% | 16.4% |
Technicals
VBR has the stronger structure| Metric | SPSM | VBR |
|---|---|---|
| RSI (14) | 56.7 | 68.2 |
| ADX (14) | 40.3 | 34.9 |
| Price vs 50-day | -2.8% | -0.8% |
| Price vs 200-day | 0.7% | 2.2% |
| Volatility (1M, annualized) | 13.1% | 12.7% |
Risk
Split| Metric | SPSM | VBR |
|---|---|---|
| Beta | 0.94 | 0.77 |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.81 | 0.86 |
| Sortino ratio | 1.42 | 1.51 |
| Max drawdown | -10% | -8.8% |
| Current drawdown | -8.5% | -5.1% |
| Annualized volatility | 15.8% | 14% |
| Value at risk (95%) | -1.5% | -1.4% |
Straight answers
Short answers to the questions fund investors ask about this pair, from the figures above.
What is the difference between SPSM and VBR?
SPSM and VBR have little in common: 21% of their weight is in the same securities.
How much do SPSM and VBR overlap?
SPSM and VBR share 20.71% of their weighted exposure across 339 common holdings. 269 holdings are unique to SPSM, and 499 holdings are unique to VBR. Owning both is genuinely additive — most of the capital sits in different securities.
Which ETF is more diversified, SPSM or VBR?
VBR holds more positions: 845 versus 610 for SPSM.
Which has the lower expense ratio?
SPSM has the lower expense ratio, 0.03% a year against 0.05% for VBR.
Which ETF has the higher distribution yield?
VBR, with a trailing 12-month distribution yield of 1.85% against 1.54% for SPSM.
Which ETF has been more volatile?
SPSM has been more volatile over the past year, at 15.8% annualized against 14% for VBR.
Which ETF has had the smaller drawdown?
VBR fell less from peak to trough over the past five years: -24.2% against -27.9% for SPSM.
Compare SPSM and VBR with others
Continue your research
This page answers which of the two. These answer the questions on either side of it.
How this comparison is scored
The Algovestiq AIQ Score composites four factors — Quality, Value, Momentum and Risk, each carrying a fixed weight. Sentiment is reported separately as SentimentPulse and is not folded into the composite. Scores refresh every trading day, and this page regenerates from the latest snapshot rather than being written once.
The verdict names a leader, states how broadly six independent evidence groups agree, and rates how durable that conclusion is given the score gap, its recent trajectory and the current signal state on both names.
How to use side-by-side comparison →This comparison is informational and educational, not investment advice. AIQ scores update daily; re-check after earnings, guidance or macro data that materially changes either name’s factor profile.