HYTR vs USHY

HYTRCCounterpoint High Yield Trend ETF

USHYAiShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate 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.

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

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.

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

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.

• 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

• 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

• 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 HYTR profile⁠

Full USHY profile⁠