DLUX vs XHLF

DLUXBDoubleLine Ultrashort Income ETF

XHLFABondBloxx Bloomberg Six Month Target Duration US Treasury ETF

In short

DLUX DoubleLine's 2026 entry treats the cash corner of the bond market as an active job: government, securitized and corporate paper, interest-rate risk kept very low, measured against 3-month T-bills.

XHLF Most cash-parking funds pick a maturity bucket. XHLF picks a number: it blends Treasury bills to an average duration of about six months, resets to that target monthly, and charges three basis points to do it.

Stated mandate

DLUX The Fund seeks current income and total return while preserving capital. It actively manages liquidity, interest-rate, and spread risks through diversified, high-quality government, securitized, and corporate bond exposure while keeping interest-rate risk very low.

XHLF The Fund seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury securities.

Why people hold it

• DLUX Costs 0.18% a year, below the 0.20% median for ultrashort bond ETFs, and that buys active management rather than index tracking.
• Works three levers at once: liquidity, interest-rate and spread risk, across diversified high-quality government, securitized and corporate bonds.doubleline.com
• The yardstick is the ICE BofA 3-Month Treasury-Bill Index, so the fund is built to be judged against cash, not the broad bond market.doubleline.com

• XHLF Costs 0.03% a year, against a typical short-Treasury peer near 0.14%. In cash-like funds, where returns come from bills everyone owns, fee is the main lever.
• Tracks an index built to hold an average duration of roughly six months, rebalanced monthly, so exposure stays anchored instead of drifting as bills mature.bondbloxxetf.com
• Sits in the gap between 0-3 month bill funds and one-year funds. Its sibling XONE targets a one-year duration at the same 0.03%, so the two can be mixed to dial in duration.
• US Treasury bills only, no credit bets hiding in the portfolio, run in a multi-billion-dollar fund that has stayed close to its index.

Worth knowing

• DLUX Income arrives quarterly, four times a year rather than monthly.
• Launched in 2026 with a small asset base and light trading, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads than the category's giants.
• Established rivals undercut it on fee: VUSB at 0.10%, SHV and PULS at 0.15%.

• XHLF Six months of duration is not zero. Prices move a touch more when yields shift than in 0-3 month bill funds such as BIL or CLIP.
• Income rides whatever Treasury bills happen to pay, and distributions arrive on an irregular rhythm rather than a fixed amount or schedule.
• Volume is moderate next to the largest bill ETFs, so spreads can be a bit wider, which matters more on big tickets than small ones.

Full DLUX profile⁠

Full XHLF profile⁠