FSYD vs USHY

FSYDCFidelity Sustainable High Yield ETF

USHYAiShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

In short

FSYD Junk bonds with a screen. FSYD reaches for high income in below-investment-grade debt, but only from issuers with proven or improving sustainability practices, with a quality-and-value quant model doing the picking.

USHY The wide-angle lens on junk bonds: about 1,900 US dollar high yield corporate issues for 0.08% a year, a fifth of what the typical fund in its category charges. Broad, cheap, heavily traded, and it pays monthly.

Stated mandate

FSYD The fund seeks a high level of income and may also pursue capital appreciation. It primarily invests in below-investment-grade debt securities issued by companies with proven or improving sustainability practices.

USHY The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated high yield corporate bonds.

Why people hold it

• FSYD Rare combo: a high-yield bond fund built around a sustainability test rather than plain credit beta. What the label promises and what the portfolio holds line up closely.
• The screen sits in the prospectus, not the brochure: below-investment-grade issuers with proven or improving sustainability practices, sorted by a quality-and-value quant model.
• Spreads credit risk across roughly 400 bond positions and pays income monthly.
• Measured against the ICE BofA US High Yield Constrained Index, the same yardstick used by plain-vanilla giants like USHY, so the effect of the screen is easy to compare.

• USHY Charges 0.08% a year while the median high yield fund in its cohort runs 0.40%. Cheap rent on an expensive-to-run corner of the bond market.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds against the ICE BofA US High Yield Constrained Index: the broad market, not a curated slice of the most liquid names.ishares.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded in high yield, which tends to keep bid-ask spreads thin even on busy days.
• Pays monthly and has tracked its index tightly since its 2017 launch, one of the closer index matches in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• FSYD At 0.55% a year it sits above the high-yield median of 0.40%, and index rivals like SCYB (0.03%) and SPHY (0.05%) cost a fraction. The screening work is the bill.
• Thinly traded and small next to the category's heavyweights, so limit orders and patience matter on the way in and out.
• Below-investment-grade debt carries credit risk: prices move with default worries in ways investment-grade bonds generally do not.

• USHY High yield means below-investment-grade borrowers. When credit gets stressed this asset class drops with stocks instead of cushioning them.
• Cheaper tickets sit on the same shelf: SCYB at 0.03% and SPHY at 0.05%.
• This is a fund, not a bond ladder. No maturity date hands your principal back; the basket rolls on indefinitely.

Full FSYD profile⁠

Full USHY profile⁠