BIL vs TBLL

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

TBLLAInvesco Short Term Treasury ETF

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.

TBLL The bill fund that stretches to a full year. TBLL owns U.S. Treasuries maturing in one year or less and charges 0.08%, well under the typical fund in its 0-1 year Treasury group.

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.

TBLL The fund invests primarily in U.S. Treasury obligations with maturities of one year or less and seeks exposure to the ICE U.S. Treasury Short Bond Index.

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.

• TBLL Charges 0.08% a year against a 0.14% median for its 0-1 year Treasury cohort, and undercuts BIL, the 1-3 month bill fund at 0.14%.
• Fishes the entire under-one-year curve, about 90 Treasury positions, instead of camping in 1-3 month paper like much of the peer shelf.
• Live since 2017 and a multi-billion-dollar fund, with index tracking among the tighter implementations in its 17-fund group.
• Distributions land monthly, and the portfolio is Treasury obligations only, so no corporate credit rides along.

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.

• TBLL Not the cheapest seat in the row: XONE runs 0.03% and VBIL 0.06%, so the cost gap is a few basis points.
• Reaching out to one-year maturities carries slightly more interest-rate sensitivity than a strict 1-3 month bill portfolio.
• Moderately traded rather than the volume leader of its category, so spreads deserve a look on larger orders.

Full BIL profile⁠

Full TBLL profile⁠