BLV vs SPAB

BLVAVanguard Long-Term Bond ETF

SPABAState Street SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

BLV Most bond ETFs spread across every maturity. BLV camps at the long end, tracking an index of long-dated Treasuries and investment-grade corporates for 0.03% a year. Maximum interest-rate sensitivity, minimum price tag.

SPAB A 2007-vintage core bond fund priced at 0.03%: roughly 8,500 US investment-grade bonds in one ticket, at the same rock-bottom fee the household names charge for the same index.

Stated mandate

BLV The fund seeks to track a market-weighted index of long-term, dollar-denominated bonds through an indexing approach. It invests at least 80% of assets in securities represented by the target index and uses sampling.

SPAB The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index before fees and expenses, providing broad exposure to U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds.

Why people hold it

• BLV Costs 0.03% a year against a 0.36% median for its bond peer group. In indexed bonds, where everyone owns roughly the same paper, the fee gap is most of the difference.
• Not a Treasuries-only long bond fund. The Bloomberg U.S. Long Government/Credit Float Adjusted Index blends long government bonds with investment-grade corporate credit.
• Running since 2007 and now a multibillion-dollar fund that trades actively, so entering and exiting rarely means paying up on the spread.
• Pays monthly, and sits inside Vanguard's index bond lineup alongside BND, one of the strongest cost profiles in a 187-fund field.

• SPAB 0.03% a year against a 0.36% median for its peer group, and the same ticket price as AGG, SCHZ and BBAG on the identical index.
• Roughly 8,500 dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds in one line item, tracking the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. Diversification you could not assemble bond by bond.ssga.com
• Trades actively and has tracked its index closely, putting it among the stronger implementations in the core-bond group.
• Running since 2007, now a multi-billion-dollar fund, and it pays monthly rather than quarterly.

Worth knowing

• BLV Long maturities are the point, and they cut both ways: prices move sharply when long-term rates move. This is the twitchiest corner of the investment-grade bond market.
• The corporate side brings credit risk that a Treasury-only long fund does not carry.
• Vanguard samples the index rather than owning every bond in it, holding roughly 170 issues, so returns can diverge slightly from the benchmark.

• SPAB Bond prices move opposite yields. When rates rise the index falls and the fund follows it down; a 0.03% fee cannot cushion that.
• AGG, SCHZ and BBAG hold the same declared index at the same 0.03%. Picking among them comes down to spreads and platform, not the portfolio.
• Investment grade and US dollar only by mandate: high yield and foreign-currency debt sit outside the remit.ssga.com

Full BLV profile⁠

Full SPAB profile⁠