Vanguard Readies ETF to Track Wilshire 4500

Still stymied in its efforts to launch exchange-traded shares tracking the S&P 500 index, index-fund titan Vanguard plans to slap an exchange-traded share class on the (VEXMX Quote)Vanguard Extended Market Index fund in September.

Vanguard filed paperwork with regulators Friday registering the new Vanguard Extended Market VIPER share class (short for Vanguard Index Participation Equity Receipts). The fund tracks the primarily small- and mid-cap Wilshire 4500 Index, and VIPER shares will trade on the American Stock Exchange. Index-fund guru Gus Sauter has run the fund since its 1987 inception.

This will be the firm's second exchange-traded fund share class. The first, the Vanguard Total Stock Market VIPER (VTI Quote) which tracks with Wilshire 5000 Index, launched at the end of May. Due to a licensing beef with Standard & Poor's parent McGraw Hill, the firm has yet to launch ETF shares for its flagship (VFINX Quote)Vanguard 500 Index fund. The Extended Market Index fund would complement an S&P 500 fund, because the mostly small- and mid-cap Wilshire 4500 Index essentially replicates the entire U.S. market, excluding the stocks in the mostly large-cap S&P 500. ...