IMTB vs SPAB

IMTBAiShares Core 5-10 Year USD Bond ETF

SPABAState Street SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

IMTB Most core bond funds hand you the entire yield curve. IMTB takes only the 5-to-10-year belly, and its index reaches past the Agg into high yield, for seven basis points a year.

SPAB A 2007-vintage core bond fund priced at 0.03%: roughly 8,500 US investment-grade bonds in one ticket, at the same rock-bottom fee the household names charge for the same index.

Stated mandate

IMTB The fund seeks to track an index of U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade and high-yield bonds with remaining maturities between five and ten years.

SPAB The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index before fees and expenses, providing broad exposure to U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds.

Why people hold it

• IMTB Charges 0.07% a year against a category median near 0.36%. The maturity-sliced build does not carry a boutique price tag.
• The Bloomberg U.S. Universal 5-10 Year Index goes where the Agg stops: investment grade plus a high-yield sleeve, spread across thousands of individual bonds.ishares.com
• Tracks its benchmark very closely and pays monthly, so income arrives on a set cadence rather than in quarterly lumps.
• An iShares Core fund running since 2016, and one of the stronger builds in a core bond aisle that holds well over a hundred competitors.

• SPAB 0.03% a year against a 0.36% median for its peer group, and the same ticket price as AGG, SCHZ and BBAG on the identical index.
• Roughly 8,500 dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds in one line item, tracking the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. Diversification you could not assemble bond by bond.ssga.com
• Trades actively and has tracked its index closely, putting it among the stronger implementations in the core-bond group.
• Running since 2007, now a multi-billion-dollar fund, and it pays monthly rather than quarterly.

Worth knowing

• IMTB Trades lightly next to giants like BND and SCHZ. Thinner volume can mean wider spreads at the moment you buy or sell.
• One maturity bucket only: no short-end ballast, no long bonds. Moves in intermediate rates hit the whole portfolio at once.
• The high-yield slice adds credit risk that plain Agg trackers (BND, SPAB, SCHZ) leave out, and those three run at 0.03%.

• SPAB Bond prices move opposite yields. When rates rise the index falls and the fund follows it down; a 0.03% fee cannot cushion that.
• AGG, SCHZ and BBAG hold the same declared index at the same 0.03%. Picking among them comes down to spreads and platform, not the portfolio.
• Investment grade and US dollar only by mandate: high yield and foreign-currency debt sit outside the remit.ssga.com

Full IMTB profile⁠

Full SPAB profile⁠