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Do Total Market funds include all market capitalizations?

Personal Finance & Money Asked on April 18, 2021

Building up my IRA and one of the funds I want to use is FSKAX. When I was looking at its composition, it says its a "Large Blend" and that 99.11% of its portfolio invest in companies with a value greater than $10bn, which I believe means Large Cap. The index it seeks to match is the DWCF, but I’ve read that it includes stocks from all market capitalizations.

Does a Total Market fund actually cover more than just large cap? Or does it mean "total market" by including all sectors?

One Answer

Yes, a total market fund should include small-, mid-, and large-cap equities. In the case of FSKAX, it follows the Dow Jones US Total Market Index, which from your link:

The Dow Jones U.S. Market Index (DWCF) is a total market index that represents the top 95% of the U.S. stock market based on market capitalization.

So by definition the smallest 5% are excluded.

Additionally, it is capitalization-weigthed, meaning it holds more of the larger equities and less of the smaller.

These factors may make FSKAX, in particular, look more like large-cap fund than a total-market fund.


If you read the Objective section of Fidelity's page on FSKAX, you'll see (emphasis mine):

Seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the total return of a broad range of United States stocks.

Compare this to the objective listed for VTSAX:

The investment seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of the overall stock market.


So yes, a total-market index fund should include all capitalizations, but whether a particular fund does, or to what extent, will vary between individual funds. If you aren't happy with a particular fund's coverage of the market, either invest in a different fund instead, or in an additional fund to supplement what is missing.

Correct answer by yoozer8 on April 18, 2021

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