FMUB vs HYMB

FMUBAFidelity Municipal Bond Opportunities ETF

HYMBAState Street SPDR Nuveen ICE High Yield Municipal Bond ETF

In short

FMUB Tax-free income is the job, but the mandate also leaves room for capital growth. Fidelity's 2023-vintage muni fund spreads across roughly 400 bonds and pays monthly.

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

FMUB The fund seeks high current income exempt from federal income tax, with capital growth also considered.

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

• FMUB The mandate is broader than the usual muni playbook: high current income exempt from federal income tax, with capital growth also considered.
• It does what the label says. The portfolio hews closely to its stated muni-income mandate, one of the tighter mandate matches among municipal bond ETFs.
• Roughly 400 bonds behind it, and the payout runs monthly rather than quarterly.

• 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

• FMUB At 0.30%, the fee sits right at the muni-ETF median. Index-tracking staples like VTEB (0.03%) and MUB (0.05%) charge a fraction of that.
• It trades thinly next to the category's giants, which can mean wider spreads at the moment you place an order.
• Launched in 2023, so the track record is short and assets stay modest against the multi-billion-dollar muni index funds.

• 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 FMUB profile⁠

Full HYMB profile⁠