ANGL vs USHY

ANGLBVanEck Fallen Angel High Yield Bond ETF

USHYAiShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate 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.

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

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.

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

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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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 ANGL profile⁠

Full USHY profile⁠