CGUI vs CLIP

CGUIBCapital Group Ultra Short Income ETF

CLIPAGlobal X 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF

In short

CGUI Capital Group made its name on active bond and stock pickers, not index trackers. CGUI points that machinery at the dull end of the curve: investment-grade paper, duration held to a year or less, income paid monthly.

CLIP Treasury bills, one to three months out, at half the fee of the category's longtime giant. Global X launched CLIP in 2023 as the cheap challenger in the parking-lot corner of the bond market, and it has hugged its index tightly since.

Stated mandate

CGUI The fund seeks current income while maintaining an ultra-short duration profile and focusing on capital preservation.

CLIP CLIP seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Solactive 1-3 month US T-Bill Index. It invests in U.S. government Treasury bills with remaining maturities from one month to under three months.

Why people hold it

• CGUI The rulebook is tight: an average portfolio duration of one year or less and a dollar-weighted average effective maturity of two years or less under normal conditions.sec.gov
• At 0.18% a year it undercuts the typical cash-alternative fund and matches JPST, the category's most established name, on price.
• Actively run, not an index copy. The 3-month T-bill index is the yardstick, not the shopping list, so managers can pick their spots across short corporate and securitized paper.capitalgroup.com
• Income arrives monthly, spread across a couple hundred short-dated positions, and the fund sits in the upper half of its cash-alternative peer group.

• CLIP 0.07% a year, half the 0.14% median for its bill-fund cohort and half what category veteran BIL charges for the same one-to-three-month exposure.
• The mandate fits on one line: US Treasury bills maturing in one month to under three, roughly two dozen of them. Government paper only, no corporate credit slipped in.globalxetfs.com
• Sticks to the Solactive 1-3 month US T-Bill Index about as tightly as anything in its peer group, which is the entire job description for a bill fund.
• Distributes monthly, and it has already gathered billions in assets, so it is no thin-ice launch.

Worth knowing

• CGUI It is a bond fund, not a money market fund. The share price moves, and on an exchange it can trade above or below the value of what it holds.capitalgroup.com
• Launched in 2024, so the live record is short next to cash funds that have already traded through several rate cycles.
• Cheaper shelf-mates exist: ICSH charges 0.08%, well under half the fee, with a different portfolio behind it.

• CLIP Income comes straight off short-term Treasury rates. Monthly payouts move up and down with those rates rather than sitting at a fixed level.
• It opened in 2023, so the track record is short next to the bill funds it undercuts on fee.
• Volume is respectable, not the deepest in the cohort, and a hair cheaper exists (Vanguard's VBIL at 0.06%). At these fee levels the gap is rounding error.

Full CGUI profile⁠

Full CLIP profile⁠