Three brand-new Vanguard ETFs in the Trading 212 SIPP today — and all three are completely new positions. Vanguard has just launched an expanded lineup of global equity UCITS ETFs and I've jumped straight in, because this is the kind of thing that only comes along once in a blue moon: genuinely new, genuinely cheap, genuinely useful building blocks, straight from the boring index-fund people themselves. The whole point of this website is buy less crap and own the world as simply and cheaply as possible — and Vanguard has basically just handed me three new ways to do exactly that. So let me walk you through what I bought and why, because these three tickers do very different jobs and between them they're my new answer to 'what should a UK investor own?'
── VALL: The Whole World in One Fund, at 0.07% ──
First up, VALL — the Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap UCITS ETF. This is the big one, and honestly it's made me quietly gleeful. Until now, if you wanted Vanguard's flagship global exposure you bought VWRP, the FTSE All-World ETF, which costs 0.22% and covers around 3,700 companies. Now there's VALL: same Vanguard, same sort of global philosophy, but it covers roughly 10,000 companies — the whole investable world, large, mid and small caps, developed and emerging markets, all in one fund — and it costs just 0.07%. Yes, you read that right. More coverage than VWRP, and a third of the price. It's one of those rare moments where newer genuinely means better, not just shinier.
For anyone who wants a proper one-fund portfolio — one ETF, set up a direct debit, done — VALL is now arguably the cleanest, cheapest way to own essentially the entire planet's stock market in a single holding. It undercuts even the SPDR MSCI All-Cap World IMI ETF on cost, and it's comfortably cheaper than any of the established all-world trackers. As a 66-year-old who likes everything to be boring, cheap and robust, this ticks every box. I'll be adding more of this one for sure. (One practical note for anyone following along: on Trading 212 and the London exchange the ticker is VALL; on some European exchanges it trades as VGLA. Same fund, occasionally a different label — worth knowing so you're not startled.)
── VSML: The Global Small-Caps the Big Indexes Gloss Over ──
Second, VSML — the Vanguard FTSE Global Small-Cap UCITS ETF, at 0.22%. This one's the tilt, and it's a subtle but genuinely important piece of the puzzle. Big global index funds like VWRP — and even the new all-cap — are dominated by enormous companies, because they're weighted by size. The giants of the world get almost all the weight and roughly the last 10% of listed companies get almost none of it. Yet smaller companies, historically, have been a source of extra long-term return and diversification — the plucky smaller firms that grow into the big ones of tomorrow aren't sitting at the bottom of a mega-cap fund somewhere; they're in this fund.
So VSML is my 'own the uncomfortable tail' fund. It's designed to sit alongside a broad global ETF as the small-cap component, catching the thousands of tiny companies — across developed markets like the UK, Europe, Japan and Australia, and emerging markets too — that the mainstream trackers barely register. It's more volatile, it's a bit more specialist, and it costs more (0.22% is still cheap, but not 0.07% cheap). That's the honest trade-off. But as a small permanent tilt alongside the big world fund, it adds a genuinely different source of growth and one that doesn't just mirror whatever the US mega-caps are doing this quarter. Keep the position sensible, treat it as the satellite, and let it do its quiet thing over decades.
── VXUS: Everything in the World That Isn't America ──
Third, VXUS — and this one's a bit of a knowing nod to how the whole portfolio fits together. VXUS is the total international fund: it tracks the FTSE Global All Cap ex-US index, which is a name that tells you everything. It owns the entire developed and emerging world outside the United States — Europe, the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, and emerging markets from China and India to Taiwan and Brazil, right down into small caps, roughly 8,500 companies in all. It is, in effect, the mirror image of a US total-market fund like VTI. Held together, the two of them make the whole world in two tidy halves.
Why does a UK investor want this specifically? Because America has carried the market's returns for a very long time, and everything on this site is 50% rates confidence and 50% honesty about what I don't know. VXUS is my way of making sure the 'rest of the world' genuinely has a seat at the table rather than being an afterthought that rides along inside a heavy-US global fund. If I already own America through VALL and VUAG, and I think there's meaningfully more of the planet worth owning beyond it, VXUS is the clean, dedicated, low-cost way to say it. It's the exposure that keeps my portfolio honest — the insurance that I'm not all-in on a single economy, no matter how good that economy has been for the last fifteen years.
── The Big Picture: Own the Whole World, Cheaply ──
Step back and these three buys are actually one simple idea wearing three hats. VALL is the core — the entire world, one fund, 0.07%. VSML is the small-cap satellite, catching the companies most index funds miss. And VXUS is the explicit ex-US tilt, the rest-of-the-planet position that balances out my American-heavy core. None of it requires a stock-picking genius, none of it requires predicting which country or sector wins the next decade, and none of it costs more than a fraction of a percent. It's the whole buy-less-crap philosophy in three tickers: keep it simple, keep it cheap, own as much of the world as you can, and then get out of your own way and let compounding do the heavy lifting for the next twenty-odd years.
And a word on what's next, because I don't want you to think this is a one-off splurge. I'll be buying lots of these ETFs. Not because I'm chasing anything or trying to time a top — the opposite. VALL, VSML and VXUS are the kind of boring, broad, cheap building blocks that are meant to be bought slowly, regularly, and in steadily growing amounts, month after month, for years. These three are going to feature heavily on this page going forward, alongside the VWRP and VUAG I already feed. New tools, same habit: keep the direct debits rolling, keep the top-ups coming, and let compounding do the heavy lifting.
As always, this is what I bought with my own money in my own SIPP — it is not advice, and Vanguard funds, like all investments, can go down as well as up. I'm not suggesting VALL, VSML or VXUS are right for you; they're right for me because they are boring, broad, cheap and mine. Do your own research, and remember that the single best investment decision most people can make is simply to start — to own as much of the world as you can afford, as cheaply as possible, and to keep buying regularly for decades. Buy less crap, invest the difference, give it time. Invest. Wait. Repeat. Happy days.