AGG vs IMTB

AGGAiShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

IMTBAiShares Core 5-10 Year USD Bond 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.

IMTB Most core bond funds hand you the entire yield curve. IMTB takes only the 5-to-10-year belly, and its index reaches past the Agg into high yield, for seven basis points a year.

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.

IMTB The fund seeks to track an index of U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade and high-yield bonds with remaining maturities between five and ten years.

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.

• IMTB Charges 0.07% a year against a category median near 0.36%. The maturity-sliced build does not carry a boutique price tag.
• The Bloomberg U.S. Universal 5-10 Year Index goes where the Agg stops: investment grade plus a high-yield sleeve, spread across thousands of individual bonds.ishares.com
• Tracks its benchmark very closely and pays monthly, so income arrives on a set cadence rather than in quarterly lumps.
• An iShares Core fund running since 2016, and one of the stronger builds in a core bond aisle that holds well over a hundred competitors.

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.

• IMTB Trades lightly next to giants like BND and SCHZ. Thinner volume can mean wider spreads at the moment you buy or sell.
• One maturity bucket only: no short-end ballast, no long bonds. Moves in intermediate rates hit the whole portfolio at once.
• The high-yield slice adds credit risk that plain Agg trackers (BND, SPAB, SCHZ) leave out, and those three run at 0.03%.

Full AGG profile⁠

Full IMTB profile⁠