Paasa · UCITS Intelligence
Fund comparison report
CSPX (iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF) · VUAA (Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (USD) Accumulating)
Generated – · Correlation benchmark: S&P 500 Total Return index · Computed by Paasa from dividend-adjusted daily closes
True rivals: all 2 funds track the S&P 500. Performance is near identical; the decision comes down to cost, size, listing and share class.
Metric grid · all rows
| Metric | CSPX | VUAA |
|---|
| Identity & structure |
| Provider | iShares | Vanguard |
| Benchmark index | S&P 500 | S&P 500 |
| Asset class | Equity | Equity |
| Exposure | US | US |
| Domicile | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 🇮🇪 Ireland |
| Distribution | Accumulating | Accumulating |
| Trading currency | USD | USD |
| ISIN | IE00B5BMR087 | IE00BFMXXD54 |
| Inception | 19 May 2010 | 14 May 2019 |
| Cost |
| TER | 0.07% | 0.07% |
| Tracking difference (ann.) | -0.38% | -0.38% |
| Tracking error (ann.) | 3.90% | 3.96% |
| True annual cost (est.) | 0.45% | 0.45% |
| Performance |
| YTD return | +10.3% | +10.3% |
| 1Y return | +21.4% | +21.4% |
| 3Y return | +72% | +71% |
| 5Y return | +84% | +85% |
| CAGR (5Y) | +12.9% | +13.1% |
| Risk |
| Volatility (ann.) | 16.1% | 16.1% |
| Max drawdown | -24.4% | -24.4% |
| Sharpe | 0.56 | 0.57 |
| Sortino | 0.79 | 0.81 |
| Beta (vs own index) | 0.99 | 0.99 |
| Alpha (ann., vs own index) | -0.36% | -0.36% |
| 1M VaR 95% | -7.3% | -7.4% |
| 1M CVaR 95% | -10.8% | -10.8% |
| Corr. vs selected benchmark | 0.97 | 0.97 |
| Risk class (SRRI) | 4/7 | 4/7 |
| Income |
| Dividend yield | 0.00% | 0.23% |
| Income on $10,000 | $0/yr | $23/yr |
| Liquidity & size |
| Fund size (AUM) | $151.8B | $85.3B |
| Holdings | 504 | 516 |
| Price | USD 814.15 | USD 146.00 |
| Exchange | LSE | LSE |
| Data window | 1,260 d since 16 Jul 2021 | 1,260 d since 19 Jul 2021 |
All rows are included, whether or not the on-screen view hid them behind the Simple density or the differences-only toggle. – means the value was not computable from available data, never zero.
Holdings overlap matrix
| CSPX | VUAA |
|---|
| CSPX | 100% | 97% |
| VUAA | 97% | 100% |
Overlap mode: true holdings overlap. Pairwise correlation of calendar-month returns: CSPX × VUAA 1.00.
Fund summaries
CSPX · iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF · IE00B5BMR087
iShares fund tracking S&P 500, accumulating share class trading in USD on LSE, domiciled in Ireland. Costs: TER 0.07%, realised tracking difference -0.38% a year vs its own index, for an estimated true annual cost of 0.45%. Size and breadth: $151.8B in assets across 504 holdings, running since 19 May 2010. Over its common data window it returned +21.4% over 1 year and +84% over 5 years (+12.9% a year), with 16.1% annualized volatility, a worst drawdown of -24.4% and a Sharpe of 0.56. Correlation of monthly returns with S&P 500 Total Return index: 0.97.
VUAA · Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (USD) Accumulating · IE00BFMXXD54
Vanguard fund tracking S&P 500, accumulating share class trading in USD on LSE, domiciled in Ireland. Costs: TER 0.07%, realised tracking difference -0.38% a year vs its own index, for an estimated true annual cost of 0.45%. Size and breadth: $85.3B in assets across 516 holdings, running since 14 May 2019. Over its common data window it returned +21.4% over 1 year and +85% over 5 years (+13.1% a year), with 16.1% annualized volatility, a worst drawdown of -24.4% and a Sharpe of 0.57. Correlation of monthly returns with S&P 500 Total Return index: 0.97.
Glossary · every metric in this report
Provider
The asset manager that runs the fund. From the fund's legal documents. iShares (BlackRock), Vanguard, Amundi and Xtrackers dominate the UCITS market. Bigger issuers run tighter operations and are less likely to close a fund, but the index does most of the work either way.
Benchmark index
The index the fund contractually tracks, stated in its prospectus. Performance, tracking difference and beta are all measured against it. Funds on the same index are true rivals: decide on cost, size and structure, not on tiny return gaps.
Asset class
The kind of thing the fund owns: equities, bonds, commodities. From the fund's mandate. The single biggest driver of both expected return and drawdown depth.
Exposure
Where the underlying holdings are, which is distinct from where the fund is domiciled. Derived from the portfolio's country weights. An Irish-domiciled fund can be 100% US stocks. Exposure is the bet; domicile is the wrapper.
Domicile
Where the fund is legally incorporated, not where it invests. Ireland and Luxembourg dominate UCITS. Ireland's US tax treaty cuts dividend withholding to 15%. Domicile drives withholding tax and estate-tax exposure. Irish funds sit outside the US estate-tax net.
Distribution
What happens to the dividends the fund receives. Accumulating (Acc) reinvests them inside the fund; Distributing (Dist) pays cash out. Acc defers tax and compounds automatically, which usually suits accumulators. Dist suits income needs.
Trading currency
The currency of the exchange line you buy. The same fund often lists in USD, EUR and GBP. The underlying exposure does not change. A EUR line of a USD fund still carries USD risk: currency of listing is not currency of exposure.
ISIN
The fund's international security identifier. One ISIN per share class; several exchange listings can share it. The only reliable way to confirm two tickers are actually the same fund.
Inception
When the share class launched. From the fund's registration documents. Young funds have short track records: long-window statistics are missing or fragile for them.
TER
Total Expense Ratio: the annual fee the manager deducts inside the fund. The sticker price. Set by the manager and accrued daily inside the NAV. On $10,000, TER times $10,000 is dollars per year. Costs compound like returns, in reverse. But TER is only the quoted cost; tracking difference is what you actually pay.
Tracking difference (ann.)
How far the fund's return lagged (negative) or beat (positive) its own index, per year. Cumulative fund return minus index return over the common daily history, annualized, measured against each fund's OWN prospectus index. Shown only for funds whose real index resolves; where only an asset-class proxy is available it reads as a dash, because a fund-vs-proxy gap is composition noise, not tracking. This is the realised cost of ownership. A fund can lag by less than its TER thanks to securities-lending income, or by more through poor replication.
Tracking error (ann.)
How noisily the fund follows its index day to day, regardless of direction. Standard deviation of monthly active returns vs the fund's OWN index, annualized. Shown only for funds whose real index resolves; a dash means only an asset-class proxy is available, where deviation is composition noise rather than tracking. Low tracking error means the fund is a faithful copy. High tracking error means replication risk you are not paid for.
True annual cost (est.)
A conservative estimate of what holding the fund actually costs per year. Sticker TER plus the magnitude of the realised annualized tracking difference vs the fund's own index. Deliberately double-counts fee drag so it never understates cost. The factsheet TER can undersell or oversell the real cost; this number errs on the honest side.
YTD return
Total return since the last close of the previous calendar year. Last price divided by the final close of last year, minus 1, on dividend-adjusted closes. The number everyone quotes, but it resets every January: use it with the longer windows below.
1Y return
Total return over the trailing 12 months. Last price over the price 252 trading days ago, minus 1, dividend-adjusted. Recent enough to feel current, long enough to smooth out single news cycles.
3Y return
Cumulative total return over the trailing 3 years. Last price over the price 756 trading days ago, minus 1. Covers at least one meaningful drawdown for most markets, so differences start to mean something.
5Y return
Cumulative total return over the trailing 5 years. Last price over the price 1,260 trading days ago, minus 1. The standard long-window comparison; young funds show a dash here rather than a misleading shorter number.
CAGR (5Y)
The constant yearly growth rate that turns the price 5 years ago into today's price. (P_end / P_start) ^ (1 / years) minus 1 over the trailing 1,260 trading days, with years the window's true calendar span. Comparable across periods and funds, unlike cumulative %, which flatters longer windows.
Volatility (ann.)
How violently daily returns swing around their average. Standard deviation of daily returns times the square root of 252. The denominator of every risk-adjusted ratio, and the driver of the regulator's SRRI band.
Max drawdown
The deepest peak-to-trough loss you would have sat through. Largest decline from any running high in the daily price series. Shown as a negative number; the smallest loss earns the badge. The single best gut-check number: could you have held through this?
Sharpe
Excess return per unit of total risk. (Annualized return minus the risk-free rate) divided by annualized volatility. The standard efficiency score: how well risk was converted into return.
Sortino
Sharpe's fairer cousin: it only penalises downside swings. (Annualized return minus the risk-free rate) divided by downside deviation, the volatility of negative days only. Upside volatility is not risk. Sortino does not punish it.
Beta (vs own index)
How hard the fund moves when its index moves. 1.00 is a faithful tracker. Lag-adjusted regression of daily fund returns on the fund's own index returns (robust to European venues closing before New York). The badge goes to the beta closest to 1.00. For index funds, distance from 1.00 is replication slack, not a feature.
Alpha (ann., vs own index)
Return left over after accounting for market exposure. Jensen alpha from the same regression as beta, annualized, vs the fund's own index. For a passive tracker this should hover near zero minus fees; a large negative alpha is a replication red flag.
1M VaR 95%
A monthly loss threshold you should expect to breach about one month in 20. 5th percentile of daily returns scaled to 21 trading days by the square root of time. An approximation that assumes independent days. Puts a number on how bad a bad month gets: the tail, not the average.
1M CVaR 95%
The average loss on the months that breach the VaR threshold. Mean of daily returns beyond the 95% VaR, scaled to 21 trading days. VaR says where the tail starts; CVaR says how deep it runs once you are in it.
Corr. vs selected benchmark
How closely the fund's monthly returns move with the benchmark chosen in the picker above. Pearson correlation of calendar-month returns over the common window (at least 12 months required). Change the benchmark selector to re-measure. Near 1.00 means the fund is that market. Lower values mean it genuinely diversifies away from it. Neither is universally better, so no badge here.
Risk class (SRRI)
The regulator-mandated 1 to 7 risk class shown on every UCITS KID. Realised annualized volatility mapped to the PRIIPs market-risk bands (class 4 covers roughly 12% to 20% vol). Comparable across every UCITS in Europe: same scale, same method, by law.
Dividend yield
Cash the holdings pay out, as a percent of price. Trailing 12-month distributions divided by current price. Accumulating classes reinvest it inside the fund instead of paying it. Income seekers want it paid out (Dist); accumulators defer the tax by compounding it (Acc).
Income on $10,000
The dividend yield translated into dollars per year on a $10,000 position. Yield times $10,000. For accumulating classes this value is reinvested inside the fund rather than paid to you. Percent yields are abstract; dollars per year are not.
Fund size (AUM)
Total assets in the fund, in USD. Shares outstanding times NAV. Bigger funds trade tighter, track better, and are far less likely to be liquidated under you.
Holdings
Number of positions in the fund. From the latest portfolio disclosure. Breadth caps single-name damage, though mega-cap weights mean 500 names can behave like 60.
Price
The latest traded price of this exchange line. From the reference database; listing currency shown alongside. Only matters for lot sizing. A higher price does not mean a more expensive fund.
Exchange
The venue this line trades on. The same fund often lists on the LSE, Xetra and SIX simultaneously. Pick the line matching your broker's cheapest venue and your preferred currency.
Data window
How much daily history sits behind this column's statistics. Count of daily return observations and the first date used. Short windows make every statistic fragile; this row is the sample-size disclosure.
Advisory services are provided by Arc Spire Advisory Private Limited, a SEBI Registered Investment Advisor (INA000021058). The information on this platform is for general informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Investments are subject to market risk; past performance is not indicative of future returns. UCITS funds are generally unsuitable for US persons under PFIC rules. Market data is sourced from Financial Modeling Prep and public exchange feeds; analytics are computed by Paasa from raw price series and may differ from issuer-published figures.