GHYB vs SPHY

GHYBAGoldman Sachs Access High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

In short

GHYB Most cheap high-yield ETFs just buy the whole junk-bond market. GHYB tracks an index Goldman co-designed with FTSE that screens the universe first, and charges well under the typical high-yield ETF.

SPHY State Street's junk-bond workhorse: roughly 1,900 US high yield bonds in one wrapper for 0.05% a year, a fraction of what the typical high yield ETF charges, with income paid monthly.

Stated mandate

GHYB The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the Citi Goldman Sachs High Yield Corporate Bond Index, which measures U.S.-dollar-denominated high-yield corporate bonds.

SPHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

Why people hold it

• GHYB 0.15% a year against a roughly 0.40% median for high-yield bond ETFs. In a coupon-driven asset, fee drag comes straight out of the income.
• The screened index is the point: a rules-based cut of the broad FTSE high-yield market, built with Goldman, not a plain market-cap sweep.gs.com
• Tracks its index very tightly, with roughly 600 bonds and monthly distributions doing the work.
• One of the stronger builds in a crowded high-yield field, and it has been running since 2017.

• SPHY 0.05% a year against a peer-group median about eight times higher. In high yield, the fee comes straight out of coupon income, so the gap does real work.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds tracking the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, broad enough that no single issuer's trouble dominates the portfolio.ssga.com
• Live since 2012, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and has stuck tightly to its stated index rather than drifting from the mandate.
• Distributions arrive monthly, in step with how the underlying coupons come in.

Worth knowing

• GHYB Thinly traded and modest in size next to the category giants, which usually shows up as wider bid-ask spreads.
• SCYB, SPHY and USHY charge less for full-market high-yield exposure. Here you pay a bit more for the screen.
• Screens do not remove credit risk. This is below-investment-grade corporate debt and it moves with the credit cycle.

• SPHY This is below-investment-grade credit. Defaults and spread moves drive the price far more than Treasury yields do, and sell-offs in this asset class can be sharp.
• Fees here are already near the floor: SCYB lists 0.03% and HYLB matches at 0.05%, so the cost edge over the strongest peers is narrow.
• Scope is US high yield corporates, full stop. No investment-grade ballast, no emerging market debt, nothing to soften a credit drawdown from inside the fund.ssga.com

Full GHYB profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠