AGG vs DMX

AGGAiShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

DMXCDoubleLine Multi-Sector Income ETF

In short

AGG Launched in 2003, one of the first funds to pack the entire U.S. investment-grade bond market into a single ticker: Treasuries, corporates and mortgage bonds, three basis points a year, cash paid monthly.

DMX DoubleLine's credit desks in ETF form: active managers roaming corporate bonds, bank loans, CLOs and non-Agency mortgages instead of tracking the Agg. Income is the whole point, paid monthly, and the fee reflects the hands-on work.

Stated mandate

AGG The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, providing broad exposure to the total U.S. investment-grade bond market.

DMX Seeks income with capital appreciation as a secondary objective, using active allocation across fixed-income sectors and security selection within the chosen sectors.

Why people hold it

• AGG 0.03% a year against a peer-group median near 0.36%. On a bond fund, the fee comes straight out of the coupon, so the gap matters more than it looks.
• A $100 billion-plus fund and very actively traded, the kind of depth that keeps bid-ask costs down for retail-sized orders.
• Tracks the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate closely, with one of the tightest index-following records in its peer group. Income is distributed monthly.
• Running since 2003, giving it one of the longest track records among U.S. bond index ETFs.

• DMX Not an index tracker. DoubleLine pairs its corporate-credit director with its non-Agency mortgage lead on one portfolio, picking bonds sector by sector.doubleline.com
• One wrapper, many credit sleeves: investment grade, high yield, bank loans, CLOs and non-Agency residential mortgage bonds. Distributions land monthly.doubleline.com
• The mandate is deliberately loose. Managers can lean into whichever fixed-income sector they think is cheap rather than matching a benchmark's weights.prnewswire.com
• Risk is spread across many individual bonds rather than a handful of big bets, which cushions the hit when one issuer stumbles.

Worth knowing

• AGG Investment grade and U.S. dollar only. High-yield debt and foreign bonds sit outside the mandate, so this is designed as core ballast rather than a yield hunt.
• Rate risk comes as it comes. The index gets tracked whether yields rise or fall, with no manager stepping in to shorten duration.
• The same index is sold by SPAB, SCHZ and BBAG at the same 0.03%. The portfolio is the commodity here; scale and trading depth are the tiebreakers.

• DMX At 0.50% a year it costs more than the typical core bond fund, and well above index staples like BND and SPAB at 0.03%.
• Credit quality has no floor: the fund may hold below-investment-grade bonds without limit and at times sit primarily in a single sector.prnewswire.com
• Modest in size and thinly traded, so spreads can run wider than on giant index bond funds. It also launched in late 2024, so the record is short.

Full AGG profile⁠

Full DMX profile⁠