CVRT vs ICVT

CVRTCCalamos Convertible Equity Alternative ETF

ICVTAiShares Convertible Bond 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.

ICVT Convertible bonds are corporate debt with a stock option attached. ICVT owns the plain-vanilla slice (cash-pay bonds, big issues only) by index, at 0.20% a year, the lowest fee among the handful of convertible ETFs on the market.

Stated mandate

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

ICVT The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated convertible bonds with issue sizes above $250 million.

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.

• ICVT 0.20% a year, against a category median of 0.80%. The next-cheapest convertible ETF, CWB, charges 0.40%, and the active options in the group run 0.69% to 0.95%.
• Rules, not hunches: it follows the Bloomberg U.S. Convertible Cash Pay Bond >$250MM Index and has tracked it closely, with no manager discretion in the mix.ishares.com
• The index takes only cash-pay converts above $250 million in issue size, screening out zero-coupon, preferred and mandatory structures plus called and defaulted paper.sec.gov
• A multi-billion-dollar fund trading a few hundred bonds, running since 2015 and paying distributions monthly.

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

• ICVT Converts move with the issuer's stock. The bond floor cushions, but this behaves more like an equity-sensitive hybrid than a core bond fund.sec.gov
• Convertible issuers are often unrated or below investment grade, so credit risk sits inside the portfolio alongside the rate risk.ishares.com
• Cash-pay only means no convertible preferreds or mandatories, so it is a clean core slice rather than the entire convertible market.sec.gov

Full CVRT profile⁠

Full ICVT profile⁠