Five Total Market ETFs Your Broker Forgot to Tell You About

For the investor looking to skirt volatility and for the truly indecisive among us, a total market ETF might just be the way. Most total market ETFs feature two virtues longer-term investors: Exposure to myriad sectors through holdings that often number in the hundreds and low expense ratios. Total market ETFs have another advantage: They're often less volatile than their sector or specialty ETF peers. So what's not to like? Well, total market ETFs aren't great short-term trading vehicles, but if that's the worst thing that can be said of an ETF, that's not so bad. So let's a have a look at five total market ETFs your broker may have neglected to tell you about. Vanguard Total International Stock ETF

: As we've noted before, for a new ETF, VXUS is off to a stunning start having attracted nearly $57 billion in assets under management after debuting in January. With an expense ratio of just 0.2%, VXUS is home to over 6,600 stocks including BHP Billiton

, BP

and Rio Tinto

. This is an ideal ETF for the investor looking to get substantial emerging and developed markets exposure without a heavy bias to North America. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF

: Consider the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF the U.S.-focused cousin of VXUS. VTI features a meager expense ratio of just 0.07% and has $157.3 billion in assets under management. Nine of the ETF's top-10 holdings are Dow stocks with Apple

being the exception. Overall, more than 3,200 stocks call VTI home. WisdomTree Total Earnings Fund

: Like VTI, EXT is entirely devoted to the U.S. and Apple is also EXT's lone top-10 holding that isn't a Dow stock. Six sectors (information technology, financials, consumer staples, healthcare, consumer discretionary and energy) get double-digit weights and industrials are just below 10% of the fund's sector allocation. EXT has an expense ratio of 0.28%. SPDR Dow Jones Total Market ETF

: The SPDR Dow Jones Total Market ETF kind of flies under the radar when it comes to total market funds, but this fund is not to be taken lightly with a very nice expense ratio of just 0.2%. Home to about 940 stocks, TMW's top-10 holdings aren't much different than you'll get with EXT or VTI. Six sectors (IT, financials, consumer discretionary, healthcare, energy and industrials) receive double-digit allocations. iShares Dow Jones Index Fund

: Everything being equal, IYY would make for an excellent rival to VTI. But everything isn't equal. IYY is home to “just” 1,356 stocks and an expense ratio of 0.2%. With nearly $509 million in AUM, IYY isn't going anywhere, but retail investors would do well to be involved with VTI over IYY.