HYTR vs SCYB

HYTRCCounterpoint High Yield Trend ETF

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

HYTR High yield with an exit ramp. HYTR tracks an index that rotates between junk bond ETFs and short Treasury ETFs on trend signals, so credit risk is a dial, not a default. Cost: 0.88%, net of a waiver through February 1, 2027.

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

HYTR The Fund seeks to equal or exceed the performance of the CP High Yield Trend Index before fees and expenses. It invests at least 80% of assets in the Index’s constituents or economic equivalents, including qualifying total return swaps.

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

• HYTR The whole point: the index can rebalance as often as daily, shifting between US high yield corporate bond ETFs and 3-7 year Treasury ETFs on momentum signals.tradingview.comcbonds.com
• Tight mandate discipline: at least 80% of assets in index constituents or economic equivalents, and the fund has stayed closely inside that stated lane.
• Income arrives monthly, and this is a mid-sized fund with moderate day-to-day trading rather than a thinly used shell.
• Running since 2020, so the rotation rules have been tested in live markets, not just a backtest.

• 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

• HYTR Cost of the switch: 0.88%, net of a waiver through February 1, 2027 (1.00% gross), above the category median. Plain-beta peers SCYB (0.03%) and SPHY (0.05%) carry no waiver.
• It is a fund of ETFs, plus total return swaps when needed. You hold a handful of wrappers and counterparty exposure, not a broad book of individual bonds.ycharts.com
• Trend models react after the fact. Choppy markets can hand you whipsaw: out of high yield into Treasuries just as credit turns back up.cbonds.comstockanalysis.com

• 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 HYTR profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠