Just been looking at some mid-cap growth funds and stumbled on VMGRX from Vanguard. It's interesting because it actually has a pretty solid track record if you dig into the numbers. The fund focuses on companies in that sweet spot between $2-10 billion market cap, which is where you typically find aggressive growth stock opportunities. Been around since the late 90s and has managed to accumulate over $3 billion in assets, so it's got some real substance behind it.

Performance-wise, it's mixed depending on your timeframe. The 3-year returns hit around 5.12%, which puts it in the top third of its peers. The 5-year annual return sits at about 9.31%, though that's more middle-of-the-pack performance. One thing that caught my attention is the expense ratio at 0.33% - that's actually cheaper than the category average of 1.04%, which matters when you're talking about long-term investing.

That said, there are some trade-offs. The fund's beta is 1.18, meaning it swings more than the broader market. Over 5 years, it's shown a negative alpha of -7.99, which basically means the managers haven't consistently beaten the benchmark. The standard deviation is also slightly higher than peers at 23.14% versus 23.12% average, so it's a bit more volatile. If you're looking at an aggressive growth stock mutual fund, you need to be comfortable with that kind of movement.

The fund holds mostly US equities with an average market cap of about $31 billion, and they trade fairly actively with 69% turnover. Minimum to start is $3,000, then $1 for additional investments. It's the kind of fund that could work if you're patient and don't mind the swings, but it's definitely not a guaranteed winner.