CRDT vs SPAB

CRDTFSimplify Opportunistic Income ETF

SPABAState Street SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

CRDT Not an index bond fund. CRDT roams high yield, investment grade and distressed debt hunting income, run by an alternatives shop that also handles the hedging, and it pays monthly.

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

CRDT CRDT seeks current income as its primary objective, with long-term capital appreciation as a secondary objective.

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

• CRDT Active across the credit spectrum: investment grade and high yield corporate bonds, preferred stock, Treasuries and bank loans, chosen by bottom-up research instead of an index.simplify.us
• Sub-advised by Asterozoa Capital, an alternatives manager responsible for both fixed income security selection and the fund's derivatives strategy.simplify.ussimplify.us 2
• The prospectus puts guardrails on the racy stuff: up to 15% in illiquid holdings such as distressed or private investments, and no more than 10% rated CCC or lower.simplify.us
• Pays monthly, with current income as the stated primary objective and long-term capital appreciation second.

• 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

• CRDT The 0.99% expense ratio is alternatives-manager pricing next to index core bond funds like BND at 0.03%. Active credit selection has to cover that gap.
• Small and thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the giant core bond ETFs. Limit orders matter more here.
• Junk and distressed debt move more like stocks than Treasuries when credit sours, and the fund currently sits in the bottom quartile of our aggregate-bond group.simplify.us

• 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 CRDT profile⁠

Full SPAB profile⁠