CLOA vs TRPA

CLOAAiShares AAA CLO Active ETF

TRPABHartford AAA CLO ETF

In short

CLOA BlackRock's play in AAA CLOs: active credit picking measured against J.P. Morgan's CLOIE AAA index, 0.20% a year, spread over roughly 400 positions. A billion-dollar-plus book built since its 2023 launch.

TRPA Floating-rate AAA CLO paper, actively picked instead of indexed: capital preservation plus monthly income from the senior slice of the loan-securitization stack. The quieter, smaller name in an aisle that filled up fast.

Stated mandate

CLOA The fund seeks exposure to U.S. dollar-denominated AAA-rated collateralized loan obligations, using active credit selection to pursue income and capital preservation with potentially low volatility.

TRPA The Fund seeks capital preservation and current income by investing primarily in high-quality, floating-rate collateralized loan obligations. It is actively managed and does not seek to track a specified index.

Why people hold it

• CLOA Charges 0.20% a year, below the 0.25% typical for CLO funds and level with what most of the category's biggest names (JAAA, FAAA, ACLO) charge.
• Roughly 400 separate CLO positions, one of the deepest books in its peer group, so no single deal carries the fund.
• Actively run: the team selects deals and CLO managers instead of buying whatever a benchmark holds. The CLOIE AAA index is the yardstick, not the rulebook.
• Income arrives monthly, and it sits among the easier funds in its cohort to get in and out of.

• TRPA The mandate is plain English: capital preservation and current income from high-quality floating-rate CLOs, with a manager choosing the paper rather than a rulebook.
• Coupons float, resetting with short-term rates instead of locking in for years, which keeps interest-rate sensitivity low by design.
• Pays monthly, and the 0.24% fee sits right around the middle of the AAA CLO group.
• Lands in the upper half of its AAA CLO peer group, with the portfolio itself the sturdiest part of the profile.

Worth knowing

• CLOA Active means manager-dependent. There is no index to fall back on, so outcomes hinge on which deals the desk picks.
• The mandate pursues income and capital preservation with potentially low volatility. That is the aim, not a floor; CLO prices still move.
• Trading since January 2023, so its record is short next to long-running bond funds and covers a narrow slice of credit history.

• TRPA That 0.24% is a shade above the category's biggest names: JAAA, CLOA, FAAA and ACLO charge 0.20%, PAAA 0.19%.
• It trades thinly next to the category's giants, so wider spreads and limit orders come with the territory.
• AAA is the senior slice of a CLO, not a government guarantee. The collateral underneath is leveraged corporate loans.

Full CLOA profile⁠

Full TRPA profile⁠