Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF

Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF (EDV) tracks a Bloomberg index of zero-coupon US Treasury bonds, called STRIPS, that mature in 20 to 30 years. STRIPS pay nothing until maturity, so EDV's price swings more with interest rates than funds holding regular Treasuries of similar maturity. It costs 0.05% a year. That is below TLT's 0.15%, though VGLT, SPTL and SCHQ charge 0.03%.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, EDV returned -11.8%, 8th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was -12.3% and its 10-year -3.6%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash, while stocks fell, it gained 15.4%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-39.1%); its best was 2011 (+56.1%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 60.2% (Mar 9, 2020 to Oct 7, 2026), not yet recovered.

As of Aug 31, 2026, the fund held 82 securities; the ten largest made up 16.38% of assets.

The bonds mature in 24.4 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 0%.

• Over the three months to Aug 31, 2026, investors added a net $86.8M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +2.00%, -7.42%, +1.12%.

EDV is the ETF share class of Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury Index Fund. It aims to track the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury STRIPS 20–30 Year Equal Par Bond Index. STRIPS are pieces of regular Treasury bonds that have been "stripped" so that each payment trades on its own. Each one pays a single amount at maturity and nothing before that. Investors earn their return as the price climbs toward face value.

Vanguard doesn't buy every bond in the index. It uses sampling: it holds a range of STRIPS that together match the index's key risk traits. At least 80% of net assets must be in index securities. As of August 31, 2026, the fund held 82 issues. The largest made up about 1.9% of assets, and the top 10 made up 16.4%. Cash was close to zero, and the fund held no derivatives. The prospectus reports portfolio turnover of 15%.

The fund keeps its average duration in line with the index. Duration measures how much a bond's price moves when rates change. For this index it was 23.8 years as of August 31, 2025. So if rates rose by 1 percentage point, the price would fall by roughly 24%. A 1-point drop in rates would lift it by about the same amount. The prospectus also says the fund is expected to pay income dividends, even though STRIPS pay no cash interest.

• EDV charges 0.05% a year, versus an average of 0.14% for the similar funds below (5th of 8, cheapest first).
• Of that, 0.04% is the management fee; the rest covers other fund expenses.
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $5 in the first year and $64 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

Its long zero-coupon Treasuries have sometimes risen when stocks crashed, but they have also lost more than half their value from peak, which is too volatile for a core bond holding.

EDV can move differently from stocks. In the 2020 COVID crash it gained 15.4% while the stock market fell, though it also dropped 18.5% over ten days that March. It gave no shelter in 2022. Rising rates pushed it down 37.2% during that bear market, and it lost 39.4% for the year, its worst calendar year. From its March 9, 2020 peak it fell 60.2% through October 7, 2026, and it had not recovered as of October 27, 2026. Anyone forced to sell in a bad year could lock in deep losses. Its trailing 12-month yield was 5.37% as of October 27, 2026, paid quarterly. Costs are $5 in the first year on $10,000 under the SEC's standard example. Past results don't predict future returns, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by bond funds with the closest average maturity and issuer mix (N-PORT).