CVRT vs CWB

CVRTCCalamos Convertible Equity Alternative ETF

CWBAState Street SPDR Bloomberg Convertible Securities ETF

In short

CVRT Convertible bonds that act like stocks. CVRT owns the equity-sensitive end of the US convertibles market, actively run by a firm that has specialized in converts for four decades.

CWB Convertible bonds are the hybrids of corporate credit: debt that can turn into stock. CWB has packaged them since 2009, tracking a Bloomberg index tilted toward the market's tradable issues, and it pays monthly.

Stated mandate

CVRT The Fund seeks total return through capital appreciation and current income.

CWB The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Convertible Liquid Bond Index before fees and expenses. It invests in qualifying U.S. convertible securities.

Why people hold it

• CVRT Convertible funds usually blend bond-like and stock-like issues. CVRT targets the high-delta end only (reference index: above 0.65 delta), keeping the equity link front and center.calamos.com
• Calamos pioneered convertible investing decades before ETFs existed. CVRT, launched in 2023, was the firm's first convertibles ETF.prnewswire.com
• Rules with a human hand: at least 80% of net assets in convertibles, chosen by a proprietary model plus fundamental inputs, with regular rebalancing to hold the exposure.calamos.com
• A compact book of roughly 60 convertibles, disclosed daily, that distributes monthly.

• CWB One holding, two jobs. Convertibles pay a coupon like bonds and convert into shares. You get roughly 400 of them for 0.40% a year, with distributions arriving monthly.
• The benchmark itself is picky about tradability: the Bloomberg U.S. Convertible Liquid Bond Index, as the name signals, leans toward the liquid end of a thinly traded market.
• Running since 2009 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively. Tracking of its index has been tight, and the plumbing is among the sturdiest in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• CVRT Specialist pricing: 0.69% a year, a touch above the median for actively managed US equity funds.
• Thinly traded, so spreads can run wider than on a mainstream index fund.
• Two risks in one wrapper: high-delta converts track their issuers' shares closely and still carry the credit risk of the underlying bond.calamos.com

• CWB Filed under fixed income, wired to equities. When the underlying stocks run, convertibles follow them up; when stocks sink, the swings look nothing like a core bond fund's.
• 0.40% is niche pricing. Broad index trackers in the same cohort run single-digit basis points (SCHK 0.03%, VT 0.06%), so you pay up for the convertible plumbing.
• Convertibles are a small corner of US credit. The investable pool is narrow (roughly 400 positions), so a handful of large issuers can shape the ride.

Full CVRT profile⁠

Full CWB profile⁠