AOHY vs SCYB

AOHYCAngel Oak High Yield Opportunities ETF

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

AOHY An actively managed junk-bond fund in an aisle stacked with ultra-cheap index trackers. The mandate is income first, capital appreciation second, and the cash goes out monthly.

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

AOHY The fund seeks a high level of current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation.

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

• AOHY Income is the job, not a byproduct: the fund seeks a high level of current income, with capital appreciation named only as a secondary goal.
• Distributions land monthly rather than quarterly, which lines up with how most people actually pay bills.
• The strategy predates the wrapper: this objective traces to a prospectus filed years before the ETF itself launched in 2024.
• Plain 1940 Act fund structure, and our review turned up no structural quirks to work around.

• 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

• AOHY At 0.55% a year it sits above the 0.40% cohort median, and index rivals like SCYB (0.03%) and USHY (0.08%) charge a sliver of that. The premium buys the active call.
• It trades lightly next to the cohort's index heavyweights, so limit orders matter more here than with the big passive names.
• A 2024 launch means a short record, and on our overall read it lands in the lower half of the high yield group.

• 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 AOHY profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠