GOVT vs LDRT

GOVTAiShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF

LDRTBiShares iBonds 1-5 Year Treasury Ladder ETF

In short

GOVT The plain-vanilla Treasury sleeve. One index fund spanning the full maturity spectrum of US government debt, running since 2012 at five basis points, with none of the credit risk that lives in the rest of the bond aisle.

LDRT A bond ladder in one ticker. LDRT holds a stack of iShares iBonds Treasury funds maturing inside six years, and the index keeps the rungs in place so you are not the one rolling them.

Stated mandate

GOVT The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. Treasury bonds spanning the full maturity spectrum, providing broad exposure to U.S. government debt for stability and income.

LDRT The fund tracks an index of iShares iBonds Treasury ETFs with maturities below six years, providing exposure to a ladder of U.S. Treasury bonds.

Why people hold it

• GOVT Charges 0.05% a year, well under the median fee in its broad-Treasury peer group.
• Tracks the ICE US Treasury Core Bond Index tightly, one of the cleaner index implementations among broad Treasury funds.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades heavily, which tends to show up as thin bid-ask spreads for retail-size orders.
• US Treasury debt and nothing else, paid out monthly. No corporate credit to underwrite, no mortgage prepayments to model.ishares.com

• LDRT Charges 0.07% a year, under the 0.12% median for its Treasury peer group.
• One ticket covers the whole ladder: iShares iBonds Treasury funds with maturities below six years, maintained by the index rather than by you.ishares.com
• Treasury exposure only, no corporate credit riding along, and it pays on a monthly cadence.

Worth knowing

• GOVT Covering the full maturity spectrum means long-dated bonds are in the mix, so the share price moves with interest rates more than a short-dated Treasury fund's would.
• Nominal Treasuries only. Inflation-linked exposure sits in different funds, such as SPIP or VTP.
• SPTB runs the same broad-Treasury idea at 0.03%, two basis points less.

• LDRT A fund of funds: you own the Treasury ETFs, not the bonds, and the ladder keeps rolling instead of winding down to a maturity date.ishares.com
• Launched in 2024, so the record is short next to Treasury funds that have been through several rate cycles.
• Moderately traded and mid-sized beside the aisle's heavyweights like VGIT, so spreads can run wider.

Full GOVT profile⁠

Full LDRT profile⁠