LDRT vs SPTB

LDRTBiShares iBonds 1-5 Year Treasury Ladder ETF

SPTBAState Street SPDR Portfolio Treasury ETF

In short

LDRT A bond ladder in one ticker. LDRT holds a stack of iShares iBonds Treasury funds maturing inside six years, and the index keeps the rungs in place so you are not the one rolling them.

SPTB State Street's Treasury slice of the Agg in one ticker: the whole curve from a year out to the long end, roughly 300 bonds, for three basis points. It arrived in 2024 as the Treasury building block in the SPDR Portfolio suite.

Stated mandate

LDRT The fund tracks an index of iShares iBonds Treasury ETFs with maturities below six years, providing exposure to a ladder of U.S. Treasury bonds.

SPTB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Index and provides exposure to U.S. Treasuries with at least one year remaining to maturity.

Why people hold it

• LDRT Charges 0.07% a year, under the 0.12% median for its Treasury peer group.
• One ticket covers the whole ladder: iShares iBonds Treasury funds with maturities below six years, maintained by the index rather than by you.ishares.com
• Treasury exposure only, no corporate credit riding along, and it pays on a monthly cadence.

• SPTB Three basis points. The typical fund in the Treasury cohort charges about five times that, and SPTB undercuts iShares' GOVT at five while tying Vanguard's VTG.
• One ticker covers the full Treasury curve, everything with at least a year to maturity, instead of stacking separate short, intermediate and long sleeves.ssga.com
• Plain index replication of the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Index: government paper only, no credit sleeve, no derivatives overlay in the mandate.ssga.com
• Pays income monthly, and the implementation ranks in the top quartile of its Treasury peer group on our review.

Worth knowing

• LDRT A fund of funds: you own the Treasury ETFs, not the bonds, and the ladder keeps rolling instead of winding down to a maturity date.ishares.com
• Launched in 2024, so the record is short next to Treasury funds that have been through several rate cycles.
• Moderately traded and mid-sized beside the aisle's heavyweights like VGIT, so spreads can run wider.

• SPTB Full-curve means long bonds are in the mix, so the price swings with interest rates far more than a short-term Treasury fund does.
• It launched in 2024, so the live record is short next to cohort veterans that have traded through multiple rate cycles.
• Moderately traded rather than the volume leader in its category, so bigger orders are worth routing with limits and a glance at the spread.

Full LDRT profile⁠

Full SPTB profile⁠