iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (USMV)

How has USMV done since 2011?#

From October 2011 to October 2026, USMV returned about 11.7% a year. The S&P 500 returned about 15.0% a year over the same dates. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $52,804 at the end, with every dividend reinvested.

USMV returns by month and year#

USMV rose in 121 of its 181 months (67%). Its best month was April 2020, at 9.4%. Its worst was March 2020, at −11.3%.

How risky is USMV compared with the S&P 500?#

Measured from October 2021 to October 2026, on the days both traded.

• Beta 0.59. When the S&P 500 moved 1% in a day, USMV tended to move about 0.59%.
• Correlation 0.82. USMV mostly moved with the S&P 500.
• Up and down months. In months the S&P 500 rose, USMV rose 68% as much on average. In months it fell, USMV fell 73% as much.

Is USMV above its 200-day average?#

USMV closed 5.5% above its 200-day average on October 16, 2026. A rule that holds USMV only above that average would hold it today.

What was USMV’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. USMV’s worst fall was −33.1%, from February 14, 2020 to March 23, 2020. It got back to that high on January 8, 2021. On October 16, 2026 it was 0.4% below its highest close.

What does USMV hold?#

This fund owns US companies whose stock prices have tended to move less than the overall market. It aims for a smoother ride than the overall market. It can still lose money when stocks fall.

It tracks the MSCI USA Minimum Volatility Index. It had 174 holdings as of October 15, 2026, according to iShares (BlackRock).

What is the USMV expense ratio?#

USMV charges 0.15% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.15% fee comes to about $15 a year. Of the 162 ETFs on Tactfolio, 42% charge more.

You never get a bill for it. The fund takes the fee out of its own value a little each day.

Which Tactfolio strategies hold USMV?#

No classic strategy holds USMV yet. You can add it to your own rules in the builder and see how they would have done.

How does USMV compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for USMV:

• QUAL: iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF, 0.15% a year
• SPYM: State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, 0.02% a year
• IVV: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, 0.03% a year
• VOO: Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, 0.03% a year

See all 8 USMV alternatives, compared on the same dates as USMV.

Test USMV in your own rules#

Tactfolio is a platform where you build rules-based investing strategies, backtest them on decades of real prices, share them, and run them automatically in your own Alpaca account. Open the builder, add USMV, and see how a rule such as “hold it only above its 200-day average” would have done. Strategies run on daily prices and hold US stocks and ETFs only.

The details#

Prices come from Tactfolio’s stored daily prices for USMV and SPY. Each close is adjusted for splits, and dividends are reinvested on the day the fund pays them out. CAGR is the steady yearly return that turns the starting value into the ending value. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns. Beta and correlation compare daily returns with the S&P 500 over the same dates.

Fund facts come from iShares (BlackRock). We checked them on October 17, 2026. Read what a backtest simulates and how to read drawdown and CAGR for more on these measures.