BIL vs TBIL

BILAState Street SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF

TBILAF/m US Treasury 3 Month Bill Fund

In short

BIL The original T-bill ETF, running since 2007: a giant, heavily traded stack of one-to-three-month Treasury bills that pays out monthly. Newer copycats undercut it on fee, but few match its trading footprint.

TBIL One bond, one job: TBIL owns the newest 3-month Treasury bill and rolls into the next at each month's rebalance, so you hold the current 3-month rate, not a blend. Pays monthly. Flagship of the first single-security Treasury suite.

Stated mandate

BIL The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg 1-3 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index before fees and expenses. It provides exposure to publicly issued U.S. Treasury bills with maturities of one to three months.

TBIL The Fund seeks investment results, before fees and expenses, that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg US Treasury Bellwether 3M Total Return USD Unhedged Index. It normally invests at least 80% of net assets in the index components.

Why people hold it

• BIL Holds publicly issued US Treasury bills maturing in one to three months, so the credit is the US government and rate sensitivity is measured in weeks, not years.ssga.com
• A straight index job against the Bloomberg 1-3 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index, tracked closely: no credit tiers, no duration calls, no moving parts to second-guess.
• One of the most actively traded funds in its category, with a multi-billion-dollar asset base behind it, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• Pays monthly and has run this same narrow mandate since 2007, across zero-rate years and high-rate years alike.

• TBIL Holds one security: the most recently auctioned 3-month bill, refreshed at each month's rebalance, with that on-the-run bill written in as the fallback if the index lags an auction.fminvest.com
• Pays monthly, a faster cadence than the semi-annual coupons on the Treasury notes further out the curve.fminvest.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part. Running since 2022 as the flagship of F/m's single-security Treasury lineup.fminvest.com

Worth knowing

• BIL The 0.14% fee is the trade-off. Rivals run near-identical bill exposure for less (VBIL at 0.06%, CLIP at 0.07%), and on T-bills the fee is most of the gap.
• Income moves with short-term Treasury rates. The monthly payout is whatever bills are yielding, so it rises and falls with them rather than sitting fixed.
• A few dozen bills, all maturing inside three months. That is a cash parking spot by design, with no mechanism for capital growth.

• TBIL At 0.15% it costs a bit more than the typical bill ETF and several times the cheapest options, with VBIL at 0.06% and XONE at 0.03%.
• One bond means no ladder to smooth things: at each roll the whole portfolio resets to the latest auction rate, up or down.fminvest.com
• An ETF, not a money market fund. The share price floats with the market instead of being managed to a stable $1.

Full BIL profile⁠

Full TBIL profile⁠