ANGL vs SCYB

ANGLBVanEck Fallen Angel High Yield Bond ETF

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

ANGL Junk bonds with a pedigree. ANGL holds US dollar corporate bonds that were investment grade at issue and got downgraded later, a rules-based slice of high yield running since 2012 at a quarter-percent fee.

SCYB Three basis points for the broad US high-yield corporate market. Schwab undercuts a category where the typical fund charges more than ten times as much, spreading the bet across roughly 1,800 bonds and paying monthly.

Stated mandate

ANGL The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of an index of U.S.-dollar corporate bonds that were investment grade when issued but later became below investment grade.

SCYB The fund follows a rules-based strategy intended to track the high-yield bond market, primarily through bonds in the Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate High Yield Total Return Index and similar derivatives.

Why people hold it

• ANGL Owns bonds that were investment grade when issued and later fell below it, so the portfolio is the demoted crowd rather than debt born as junk.
• Costs 0.25% a year, well under the 0.40% median for high-yield bond ETFs.
• Tracks its ICE fallen angel index closely, trades actively, and pays monthly.
• Live since 2012 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, giving the strategy a long real-world record instead of a backtest.

• SCYB 0.03% a year against a category median of 0.40%. Even the cheap rivals sit above it: SPHY at 0.05%, USHY at 0.08%.
• Tracks the same Bloomberg US Corporate High Yield index as BKHY, which charges 0.22%. Same map, cheaper toll.
• Roughly 1,800 bonds, so no single issuer's blowup drives the outcome. Rules-based and passive, and it has hugged its index closely.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and pays monthly, which matters in a corner of the market where getting out cheaply is half the job.

Worth knowing

• ANGL A narrow corner of high yield, roughly 130 bonds, so one wave of downgrades can tilt the mix toward a single sector or issuer.
• Broad high-yield beta is cheaper: SCYB, SPHY and USHY all charge under a tenth of a percent.
• Everything inside is below investment grade, so prices react to default worries and interest rate moves.

• SCYB High yield means below-investment-grade credit. These bonds behave more like stocks than Treasuries when the economy sours, and the extra income is the payment for that risk.
• Launched in 2023, so it has a shorter record than rivals that have traded through more credit cycles.
• The strategy can hold derivatives alongside the bonds themselves to track the index, one layer beyond plain bond ownership.

Full ANGL profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠