EYEG vs GIGB

EYEGCAB Corporate Bond ETF

GIGBAGoldman Sachs Access Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

In short

EYEG Most big investment-grade corporate bond funds just track the index. EYEG is AllianceBernstein's active counter: a multifactor process (value, momentum, quality, low volatility) run against the Bloomberg US Corporate Bond Index.

GIGB Most investment-grade corporate bond funds just buy the biggest borrowers. Goldman's index screens the market on liquidity and fundamentals first, then spreads the money across roughly 1,600 bonds for 0.08% a year.

Stated mandate

EYEG The fund seeks to maximize total return through current income and long-term capital appreciation.

GIGB The Fund seeks to track the FTSE Goldman Sachs Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index, which measures U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds meeting liquidity and fundamental screening criteria.

Why people hold it

• EYEG Active by design. The prospectus spells out a dynamic multifactor approach across value, momentum, quality and low volatility, rather than buying the corporate bond index in market-weight order.
• No mandate drift. The portfolio sits squarely in the investment-grade corporate bond lane it advertises, one of the cleanest mandate matches in its peer group.
• Roughly 300 bonds, with a passport: the mandate covers US, developed and emerging market corporate issuers, not just domestic names.
• Pays monthly, which suits investors who want bond income arriving on a regular cadence.

• GIGB Costs 0.08% a year, well under the typical investment-grade corporate bond ETF's 0.19%.
• The index screens US dollar investment-grade corporates for liquidity and fundamentals rather than simply following who borrowed the most.gsam.com
• Tracks that index about as tightly as passive bond funds get, and holds roughly 1,600 bonds so no single issuer carries the load.
• Pays monthly, matching how corporate bond coupons tend to land in a portfolio.

Worth knowing

• EYEG Active costs more. At 0.30%, it runs well above index giants in the same cohort such as VCIT (0.03%) and USIG (0.04%), so the manager has a fee gap to work through.
• Small and thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads can be wider and less predictable than the household-name corporate bond funds.
• Launched December 2023, so the track record is short next to peers with a decade or more of history.

• GIGB Cheap, but not the cheapest shelf: VCIT, USIG and SPIB run at 0.03% to 0.04%. You are paying a few basis points for the screening.
• Broad-maturity corporate credit moves on two levers, interest rates and credit spreads, so it swings more than short-dated bond funds.
• A mid-sized, moderately traded fund rather than a giant, so trading spreads can run wider than the largest names in the category.

Full EYEG profile⁠

Full GIGB profile⁠