VGK: Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF

What does VGK hold?#

This fund owns shares in about 1,200 companies based in developed countries in Europe, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Switzerland. It includes large, medium, and small companies. Its value can also change when European currencies rise or fall against the dollar.

It tracks the FTSE Developed Europe All Cap Index. It had 1,243 holdings as of September 30, 2026, according to Vanguard.

What is the VGK expense ratio?#

VGK charges 0.06% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.06% fee comes to about $6 a year.

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

How has VGK done since 2005?#

From March 2005 to October 2026, VGK returned about 6.3% a year. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $37,202 at the end, with every dividend reinvested.

Prices through October 16, 2026. Figures use daily closing prices adjusted for splits, with dividends reinvested. They do not include taxes or the cost of buying and selling. Past results do not tell you what will happen next.

VGK returns by year#

What was VGK’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. VGK’s worst fall was −63.6%, from October 31, 2007 to March 9, 2009. It got back to that high on April 9, 2014.

The chart shows how far below its last high the fund was on each day. Big drops are normal for some funds. They matter because selling during a drop locks in the loss.

Which Tactfolio strategies hold VGK?#

6 classic strategies hold VGK at least some of the time. Each is a set of written rules you can open, test and copy.

• Bold Asset Allocation (BAA), by Wouter Keller, 2022
• Defensive Asset Allocation (DAA), by Wouter Keller and JW Keuning, 2018
• Protective Asset Allocation (PAA), by Wouter Keller and JW Keuning, 2016
• Adaptive Asset Allocation (AAA), by Adam Butler, Michael Philbrick, Rodrigo Gordillo, and David Varadi, 2012
• Vigilant Asset Allocation G12 (VAA-G12), by Wouter Keller and JW Keuning, 2017
• Kipnis Defensive Adaptive Asset Allocation (KDA), by Ilya Kipnis, 2019

How does VGK compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for VGK:

• SCHF: Schwab International Equity ETF, 0.03% a year
• VEA: Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF, 0.03% a year
• IEFA: iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF, 0.07% a year
• EFA: iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, 0.32% a year

See all 4 VGK alternatives, compared on the same dates as VGK.

Test VGK 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 VGK, 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 VGK. 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.

Fund facts come from Vanguard. We checked them on October 16, 2026. Read what a backtest simulates and how to read drawdown and CAGR for more on these measures.