HYUP vs SCYB

HYUPBXtrackers High Beta High Yield Bond ETF

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

HYUP Most high-yield ETFs hand you the whole junk market. HYUP goes hunting in the loud end of it: a passive index built around the higher-beta slice of USD high yield, priced at half the fee of the typical peer.

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

HYUP The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Solactive USD High Yield Corporates Total Market High Beta Index through a passive indexing approach.

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

• HYUP Not a blend, a dial. The Solactive index it follows screens for the high-beta end of USD high yield, so you hold the punchier slice of the credit market in one passive wrapper.
• Costs 0.20% a year against a 0.40% median for high-yield bond ETFs, and it has tracked its index closely since launching in 2018.
• Spread across roughly 700 bonds and pays monthly, so the risk sits with the segment rather than a handful of borrowers.
• One of the stronger builds in a crowded high-yield field: low fee, plain vanilla 1940 Act index fund, no derivative machinery under the hood.

• 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

• HYUP High beta cuts both ways. Leaning into the bonds that move most means sharper swings than broad high yield when credit spreads widen.
• A small, thinly traded fund. Spreads deserve a look before you trade, unlike the giants of the category.
• Broad-market high yield comes cheaper. SCYB, SPHY and Xtrackers' own HYLB all undercut this fee for whole-market exposure without the beta tilt.

• 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 HYUP profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠