HYUP vs USHY

HYUPBXtrackers High Beta High Yield Bond ETF

USHYAiShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate 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.

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

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.

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

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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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 HYUP profile⁠

Full USHY profile⁠