Liquidity or Assets, Which Came First?

All things equal, does a lower share price for an ETF mean the ETF will attract more assets? Vanguard must hope so.

The company recently announced that they’ll execute a 2-for-1 share split for six ETFs on March 14, 2023. The six ETFs track S&P’s mid-cap and small-cap indexes; specifically, S&P MidCap 400 ETF (IVOO), S&P MidCap 400 Value ETF (IVOV), S&P MidCap 400 Growth ETF (IVOG), S&P SmallCap 600 ETF (VIOO), S&P SmallCap 600 Value ETF (VIOV) and S&P SmallCap 600 Growth ETF (VIOG).

A share-split lowers an ETFs’ market price. As a simple example, if you own 100 shares of an ETF at a price of $100 before a 2-for-1 split, you’ll have 200 shares at a price of $50 after the share split. There’s no change to your overall value—you have twice as many shares at half the price.

So why is Vanguard doing a share-split, and why these six ETFs? In its press release, Vanguard wrote it expects the share split will …