BIL vs XHLF

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

XHLFABondBloxx Bloomberg Six Month Target Duration US 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.

XHLF Most cash-parking funds pick a maturity bucket. XHLF picks a number: it blends Treasury bills to an average duration of about six months, resets to that target monthly, and charges three basis points to do it.

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.

XHLF The Fund seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury securities.

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.

• XHLF Costs 0.03% a year, against a typical short-Treasury peer near 0.14%. In cash-like funds, where returns come from bills everyone owns, fee is the main lever.
• Tracks an index built to hold an average duration of roughly six months, rebalanced monthly, so exposure stays anchored instead of drifting as bills mature.bondbloxxetf.com
• Sits in the gap between 0-3 month bill funds and one-year funds. Its sibling XONE targets a one-year duration at the same 0.03%, so the two can be mixed to dial in duration.
• US Treasury bills only, no credit bets hiding in the portfolio, run in a multi-billion-dollar fund that has stayed close to its index.

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.

• XHLF Six months of duration is not zero. Prices move a touch more when yields shift than in 0-3 month bill funds such as BIL or CLIP.
• Income rides whatever Treasury bills happen to pay, and distributions arrive on an irregular rhythm rather than a fixed amount or schedule.
• Volume is moderate next to the largest bill ETFs, so spreads can be a bit wider, which matters more on big tickets than small ones.

Full BIL profile⁠

Full XHLF profile⁠