Vanguard's Total World Stock Index Fund

Today, Vanguard announced it's new "Total World Stock Index Fund (VTWSX)". This fund will track FTSE All-world Index.

My view on this fund

Pros:

1) Good fund for starters who cannot afford minium down pay of $3000 for each Total Stock Market (VTSMX) & Total All-World ex-US (VFWIX). You get instant diversification world wide. Ideal for first time Roth (with $5000 cap for 2008) with 100% equity allocation.

2) Ideal for those who don't want to fight the market with domestic (US) & international allocation. This fund will automatically drive allocations.

3) I expect less turnover (stock churn) as most of the companies in this fund are international large cap.

Cons:

1) Expense Ratio of 0.45 is slightly on higher side. Combination of VTSMX & VFWIX has average expense ratio of 0.30.

2) No exposure to domestic small cap (which is provided by VTSMX).

3) Upfont purchase fee of 0.25% (though might be eliminated in future). While Vanguard just eliminated purchase fee for VFWIX.

4) This new fund only has around 2900 companies while VTSMX & VFWIX provide exposure to lot more.

Conclusion

I would recommend this fund to starters who want instant global equity diversification.

I am going to skip this fund and keep my allocation to VTSMX and Total International VGTSX. However, I might change from Total Interational (VGTSX) to All world ex-US (VFWIX) since there is no purchase fee for VFWIX now.