HYGV vs SCYB

HYGVANorthern Trust High Yield Value-Scored Bond ETF

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

HYGV Most high-yield ETFs buy the junk market by size. HYGV starts from the same universe, then reweights it toward Northern Trust's value score, with credit and liquidity screens on top. The quant tilt in a category built on plain beta.

SCYB Three basis points for the broad US high-yield corporate market. Schwab undercuts a category where the typical fund charges more than ten times as much, spreading the bet across roughly 1,800 bonds and paying monthly.

Stated mandate

HYGV The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Northern Trust High Yield Value-Scored US Corporate Bond Index.

SCYB The fund follows a rules-based strategy intended to track the high-yield bond market, primarily through bonds in the Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate High Yield Total Return Index and similar derivatives.

Why people hold it

• HYGV The index maximizes exposure to Northern Trust's proprietary value score, drops bonds in the lowest decile of its credit score, and screens out the thinnest new issues.sec.govflexshares.com
• Guardrails on the tilt: any issuer capped at 5% of the index, sector weights within 8 points of the parent index, duration kept similar, spread over roughly 1,000 bonds.sec.gov
• Plain index-fund plumbing: a 1940 Act ETF that has stayed close to the benchmark it advertises, pays monthly, and is one of the stronger implementations in its peer group.

• SCYB 0.03% a year against a category median of 0.40%. Even the cheap rivals sit above it: SPHY at 0.05%, USHY at 0.08%.
• Tracks the same Bloomberg US Corporate High Yield index as BKHY, which charges 0.22%. Same map, cheaper toll.
• Roughly 1,800 bonds, so no single issuer's blowup drives the outcome. Rules-based and passive, and it has hugged its index closely.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and pays monthly, which matters in a corner of the market where getting out cheaply is half the job.

Worth knowing

• HYGV Fee is 0.37% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027 (0.38% gross). That sits near the category median, but above cap-weighted trackers like SCYB at 0.03% or USHY at 0.08%.
• The index is built to carry more yield than the broad high-yield market, and those bonds are speculative: issuer defaults and sharp price moves come with the territory.sec.gov
• It reweights the market rather than mirroring it, so results can drift from plain cap-weighted high-yield indexes in either direction.sec.gov

• SCYB High yield means below-investment-grade credit. These bonds behave more like stocks than Treasuries when the economy sours, and the extra income is the payment for that risk.
• Launched in 2023, so it has a shorter record than rivals that have traded through more credit cycles.
• The strategy can hold derivatives alongside the bonds themselves to track the index, one layer beyond plain bond ownership.

Full HYGV profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠