VANGUARD SHORT-TERM FEDERAL FUND
Actively managed U.S. bond fund
As of its 2026 Q2 report, VANGUARD SHORT-TERM FEDERAL FUND held 463 positions with $4.48B in net assets. Its ten largest holdings made up 34.8% of the fund. The VSGBX share class costs 0.2% a year. Over the 12 months to May 2026, VSGBX returned 3.9%, with dividends reinvested. In 2026 Q3 it added 147 new positions and exited 188.
Vanguard Short-Term Federal Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide current income while maintaining limited price volatility.
The fund actively manages a portfolio of U.S. government and agency bonds, maintaining a dollar-weighted average maturity of 1 to 4 years to generate current income with limited price volatility. The fund may use derivatives and short positions in mortgage-backed securities to implement its strategy.
What you own
| Company | Weight | Value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|
Resolution Funding Corp Principal Strip 0.00% · due 2030-01-15 | 8.51% | $381.04M | — |
Resolution Funding Corp Principal Strip 0.00% · due 2030-04-15 | 4.41% | $197.35M | — |
Vanguard Cmt Funds-Vanguard Market Liquidity Fund | 4.20% | $188.24M | — |
United States Treasury Note/Bond 4.63% · due 2029-04-30 | 3.76% | $168.27M | — |
Fannie Mae-Aces 3.00% floating · due 2027-07-25 | 3.42% | $153.11M | — |
Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac 5.00% · due 2026-05-13 | 2.44% | $109.20M | — |
United States Treasury Note/Bond 4.13% · due 2029-03-31 | 2.36% | $105.59M | — |
United States Treasury Note/Bond 4.50% · due 2027-05-15 | 2.07% | $92.65M | — |
United States Treasury Note/Bond 3.50% · due 2028-10-15 | 1.99% | $89.15M | — |
United States Treasury Note/Bond 1.25% · due 2028-03-31 | 1.70% | $76.13M | — |
The 200 largest of 463 holdings, with the share counts as filed, open with a free account.
What the fund is made of
Percentages are of fund net assets. Rounding, liabilities and short positions can make totals differ from 100%.
| Securitized | 55.94% |
| Bonds | 39.25% |
| Cash & short-term | 4.20% |
| Derivatives | 0.04% |
Derivatives are shown at market value, not notional exposure.
How it has done
VSGBX share class · total returns with dividends reinvested
Volatility over the last 12 months: 1.52%. Past returns are a record, not a forecast.
Jun 2026 and Jul 2026 have been filed since the trailing figures were struck, so they are not in the table above or the curve — every figure here shares one cut-off, which is what makes them comparable with other funds.
The 2 share classes hold the same portfolio
| Share class | Expense ratio | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | Worst fall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.20% | +3.89% | +13.72% | +8.26% | -0.89% | |
| 0.10% | +4.00% | +14.06% | +8.80% | -0.88% |
These classes hold the same portfolio, so the 0.54pp spread over 5 years is the cost difference between them — roughly 0.11pp a year — not a difference in what they own.
Fees & fund details
VANGUARD SHORT-TERM FEDERAL FUND is an actively managed U.S. bond fund.
- Asset class
- Bonds
- Region
- United States
- Management
- Actively managed
- Fund type
- Open-end fund
- Credit quality
- Investment grade
- Rate sensitivity
- Short duration
- Expense ratio, by class
- 0.10% – 0.20%· VSGBX 0.20%
- Portfolio turnover
- 398.00% a year · as of 2026 Q2
Turnover is how much of the portfolio was replaced in a year.
Classified from what the fund holds, not from its name · 2026 Q2. The summary is a paraphrase of the prospectus; the objective is verbatim.
What changed this quarter
Positions that entered or left the fund since its previous filing. Positions that were only resized are not listed.
147 new· the largest 4
188 exited· the largest 4
Debt profile
What this fund holds — value-weighted across its bond and securitized long positions · as of 2026-04-30
Share of the fund's debt by how its coupon behaves — the fact that decides whether a rate move reaches this portfolio at all.
| Fixed rate | 66.1% |
| Floating rate | 20.1% |
| Zero-coupon or unclassified | 13.9% |
Share of the fund's debt value in each maturity band, shortest first.
| <1y | 9.4% |
| 1-3y | 41.0% |
| 3-5y | 23.8% |
| 5-10y | 6.3% |
| 10y+ | 19.5% |
Based on what filers reported; a filer that never reported a flag also reads as none.
Risk profile
Interest-rate and credit-spread sensitivity, both in years · as of 2026Q2
Most of this fund’s sensitivity is to interest rates, with credit spreads carrying about half as much.
Where the loss would come from. The two shocks are the same size, so this is the balance of the fund's two sensitivities rather than a bet on one moving more.
| Interest rates | 60% |
| Credit spreads | 40% |
Filers report the impact of a 0.01% move only, so the total is our own scaling of that one number and overstates the loss on most bonds — read it as approximate, never as precise. The two sensitivities overlap rather than add up: they measure the same positions against different shocks, which is why the durations above are shown side by side and never summed.
Share of the fund's spread duration carried by each credit tier.
| Investment grade | +1.53 yr |
Share of duration at each point, shortest first. A positive figure loses value when spreads widen; a negative one offsets — a credit hedge.
| 1 yr | 1.00 yr | 43% |
| 5 yr | 1.13 yr | 49% |
| 10 yr | 0.17 yr | 7% |
| 30 yr | 0.02 yr | 1% |
3 mo is NEGATIVE (-0.00 yr) — a deliberate hedge at that point on the curve, so it is not part of the band above.
| 3 mo | 0.04 yr | 2% |
| 1 yr | 0.56 yr | 37% |
| 5 yr | 0.73 yr | 48% |
| 10 yr | 0.17 yr | 11% |
| 30 yr | 0.03 yr | 2% |
The two bands measure the same positions against different shocks and do not add — a Treasury carries rate duration and no spread duration, a floating-rate credit the reverse. Rate tenors are also summed across every currency the fund discloses.
Show the numbers
| Tenor | Rate yrs | IG yrs | HY yrs | IG $/bp | HY $/bp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 mo | -0.00 | +0.04 | +0.00 | $16.1k | $0 |
| 1 yr | +1.00 | +0.56 | +0.00 | $252.9k | $0 |
| 5 yr | +1.13 | +0.73 | +0.00 | $326.8k | $0 |
| 10 yr | +0.17 | +0.17 | +0.00 | $77.5k | $0 |
| 30 yr | +0.02 | +0.03 | +0.00 | $12.6k | $0 |
Dollar change per 1bp of spread movement, as filed and sign-anchored. A blank cell was not filed; a zero was.
A newer credit-spread reading (2026Q3) is on file. This page holds one quarter across every figure on it, so that one appears here next quarter.
Understand how this fund fits with the rest.
Explore shared holdings, compare funds and follow their businesses with your connected AI:
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