FMNY vs HYMB

FMNYDFirst Trust New York Municipal High Income ETF

HYMBAState Street SPDR Nuveen ICE High Yield Municipal Bond ETF

In short

FMNY Most high-yield muni ETFs buy the whole country. FMNY buys New York, actively, hunting income exempt from regular federal, New York State and New York City income taxes across a concentrated book of roughly 80 bonds.

HYMB Most muni index funds stop at investment grade. HYMB keeps going: its benchmark reaches from A-rated paper down through unrated deals, spreading roughly 1,900 tax-exempt bonds across that credit line. Income lands monthly.

Stated mandate

FMNY The Fund seeks current income exempt from regular federal and New York income taxes, with long-term capital appreciation as a secondary objective.

HYMB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE US Select High Yield Crossover Municipal Index, which covers lower-rated and unrated tax-exempt municipal debt issued in the United States.

Why people hold it

• FMNY At least 80% of net assets goes into bonds paying interest exempt from regular federal, New York State and New York City income taxes. Few ETFs aim at all three.ftportfolios.com
• Actively managed with no index to hug: the team ranges across general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, municipal leases and private activity paper, and can shift on credit.businesswire.comftportfolios.com
• Income arrives monthly, and the fund has been running since 2021, so there is a real live record behind the strategy rather than a backtest.

• HYMB The crossover mandate is the whole point: the index covers lower-rated (A3/A+ or lower) and unrated tax-exempt debt, not another top-grade general-obligation ladder.ssga.com
• About 1,900 bonds dilute any single issuer's trouble, and State Street has run the fund since 2011, through more than one muni credit scare.
• One of the more actively traded funds in the muni ETF aisle, which counts in a market where the underlying bonds themselves can sit still for weeks. Pays monthly.

Worth knowing

• FMNY One state, roughly 80 bonds, and a reach for yield means lower-rated issuers: New York credit stress lands here without national diversification to soften it.ftportfolios.com
• Costs more than national high-yield muni ETFs such as HYD (0.32%) and HYMB (0.35%), and sits above the median fee in its category.
• Small and thinly traded next to the national muni names, so bid-ask spreads can be wider and large orders move the price more.

• HYMB 0.35% a year is the toll for assembling illiquid paper. Broad, plain-vanilla muni index funds such as VTEB and SCMB charge 0.03%.
• Lower-rated and unrated munis carry default and downgrade risk that top-rated general-obligation bonds don't, and prices can move sharply when muni buyers step back.
• The benchmark has been swapped before (Bloomberg to ICE in 2025), so older track records reflect a different index than the one the fund follows now.ssga.com

Full FMNY profile⁠

Full HYMB profile⁠