LDRC vs SCHJ

LDRC—iShares iBonds 1-5 Year Corporate Ladder ETF

SCHJASchwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF

In short

LDRC A bond ladder, prebuilt. LDRC holds a stack of iShares iBonds term funds, so investment-grade corporate maturities under six years sit inside one ticker at 0.10% a year.

SCHJ Short-dated corporate credit at index-fund pricing. SCHJ tracks the Bloomberg US 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index for 0.03% a year, sits at the bottom of its category's fee table, and pays monthly.

Stated mandate

LDRC The fund seeks to track an index of iShares iBonds Corporate ETFs with maturities under six years, providing an investment-grade corporate-credit bond ladder.

SCHJ The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of an index measuring the short-term U.S. corporate bond market.

Why people hold it

• LDRC One ticker, one ladder: it tracks an index of iShares iBonds corporate funds, each holding bonds that mature in a set year, stretching out to just under six years.ishares.com
• 0.10% a year, below the median fee in the investment-grade corporate bond group, and modest for a wrapper that bundles several underlying funds.
• Maturities stay under six years, keeping it off the long end of the corporate curve where prices move most when rates shift. Income is paid monthly.

• SCHJ 0.03% a year, against a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate ETFs. No peer in the cohort charges less.
• Thousands of individual bonds in the basket, so no single issuer's trouble moves the fund much.
• The 1-5 year maturity ceiling means less price swing per move in rates than intermediate corporate funds like VCIT or IGIB, which sit further out the curve.
• Interest is passed through monthly rather than quarterly, and the fund ranks in the top quartile of its investment-grade corporate peer group overall.

Worth knowing

• LDRC Young (launched November 2024) and thinly traded next to the category's household names, which can mean wider spreads at the moment you trade.
• Cost is the trade-off for structure: plain short-term corporate funds such as IGSB charge less, but hold one bucket of maturities instead of dated rungs.
• Still corporate credit. Investment grade, but downgrades and widening spreads show up in the price, and a fund-of-funds layer sits between you and the bonds.

• SCHJ This is company debt, not Treasuries. Downgrades and defaults are part of the deal, and short maturities shrink that risk without erasing it.
• A mid-size fund with moderate trading volume, so spreads can run wider than at the category's giants. Limit orders matter more here.
• Launched in 2019, so its record is shorter than rivals that traded through earlier credit cycles.

Full LDRC profile⁠

Full SCHJ profile⁠