ANGL vs SPHY

ANGLBVanEck Fallen Angel High Yield Bond ETF

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio 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.

SPHY State Street's junk-bond workhorse: roughly 1,900 US high yield bonds in one wrapper for 0.05% a year, a fraction of what the typical high yield ETF charges, with income paid 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.

SPHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

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.

• SPHY 0.05% a year against a peer-group median about eight times higher. In high yield, the fee comes straight out of coupon income, so the gap does real work.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds tracking the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, broad enough that no single issuer's trouble dominates the portfolio.ssga.com
• Live since 2012, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and has stuck tightly to its stated index rather than drifting from the mandate.
• Distributions arrive monthly, in step with how the underlying coupons come in.

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.

• SPHY This is below-investment-grade credit. Defaults and spread moves drive the price far more than Treasury yields do, and sell-offs in this asset class can be sharp.
• Fees here are already near the floor: SCYB lists 0.03% and HYLB matches at 0.05%, so the cost edge over the strongest peers is narrow.
• Scope is US high yield corporates, full stop. No investment-grade ballast, no emerging market debt, nothing to soften a credit drawdown from inside the fund.ssga.com

Full ANGL profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠