$10,000 Invested in Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF at Its Launch Is Worth This Much Today.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) has never had an investment idea. It buys the roughly 500 companies in the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index in proportion to their size, and when the index changes, it changes. There is no research team picking winners and no manager to interview.

That approach now holds about $980 billion of other people's money, which makes it one of the largest funds in the world.

And here is what it did with the money. Vanguard launched the fund on Sept. 7, 2010. Since then, it has returned about 14.7% a year with dividends reinvested, which turns an initial $10,000 into roughly $88,000 today -- close to nine times the original stake in a little under 16 years.

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