AHYB vs USHY

AHYBBAmerican Century Select High Yield ETF

USHYAiShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

In short

AHYB Most high-yield ETFs just buy the index and hand you the whole junk market. AHYB pays a team to pick instead: an active bond portfolio measured against the BB-B slice, for 0.45% a year.

USHY The wide-angle lens on junk bonds: about 1,900 US dollar high yield corporate issues for 0.08% a year, a fifth of what the typical fund in its category charges. Broad, cheap, heavily traded, and it pays monthly.

Stated mandate

AHYB The fund seeks high current income. Under normal conditions, it invests at least 80% of net assets plus investment borrowings in high-yield debt securities and actively allocates across high-yield corporate bonds.

USHY The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated high yield corporate bonds.

Why people hold it

• AHYB Genuinely active: keeps at least 80% of assets in high-yield debt and shifts allocations across corporate bonds rather than replicating a fixed list.
• Measured against the ICE BofA US High Yield Constrained (BB-B) Index, the BB and B tiers, not the whole junk market down to CCC.
• Spread across roughly 600 bonds, so one blown-up issuer is a scratch, not a crater.
• What it owns lines up closely with what the prospectus promises, and it lands in the upper half of a crowded high-yield ETF field.

• USHY Charges 0.08% a year while the median high yield fund in its cohort runs 0.40%. Cheap rent on an expensive-to-run corner of the bond market.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds against the ICE BofA US High Yield Constrained Index: the broad market, not a curated slice of the most liquid names.ishares.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded in high yield, which tends to keep bid-ask spreads thin even on busy days.
• Pays monthly and has tracked its index tightly since its 2017 launch, one of the closer index matches in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• AHYB At 0.45%, it costs real money next to index rivals like SCYB (0.03%) and SPHY (0.05%). The active calls carry that gap.
• Thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads matter more here than with the category's heavyweights.
• Launched in 2021 with a modest asset base: a shorter record and smaller footprint than the giants it competes with.

• USHY High yield means below-investment-grade borrowers. When credit gets stressed this asset class drops with stocks instead of cushioning them.
• Cheaper tickets sit on the same shelf: SCYB at 0.03% and SPHY at 0.05%.
• This is a fund, not a bond ladder. No maturity date hands your principal back; the basket rolls on indefinitely.

Full AHYB profile⁠

Full USHY profile⁠