MANI vs SPHY

MANIDMan Active Income ETF

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

In short

MANI An income-first bond fund that runs on a manager's credit calls, not an index. Launched in 2025 into a high yield aisle dominated by ultra-cheap trackers, it is the active alternative, and priced like one.

SPHY State Street's junk-bond workhorse: roughly 1,900 US high yield bonds in one wrapper for 0.05% a year, a fraction of what the typical high yield ETF charges, with income paid monthly.

Stated mandate

MANI The Fund seeks current income, while capital growth is secondary.

SPHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

Why people hold it

• MANI Actively run with a clear hierarchy: current income first, capital growth second. No index to shadow, so the manager can move around the credit market.
• Pays income quarterly, with the prospectus committing to distributions at least annually.
• Plain 1940 Act fund structure: ordinary 1099 tax reporting, no K-1 to wait on.
• Its price swings so far sit among the steadier in the high yield group, though that read comes from a short history.

• SPHY 0.05% a year against a peer-group median about eight times higher. In high yield, the fee comes straight out of coupon income, so the gap does real work.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds tracking the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, broad enough that no single issuer's trouble dominates the portfolio.ssga.com
• Live since 2012, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and has stuck tightly to its stated index rather than drifting from the mandate.
• Distributions arrive monthly, in step with how the underlying coupons come in.

Worth knowing

• MANI The fee is 0.85% a year, roughly double the typical high yield ETF, and index heavyweights like SPHY, USHY and SCYB charge a small fraction of that.
• A 2025 launch that is still small and thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads can be wide and every order moves a bigger share of the day's volume.
• Nothing here is on autopilot. Results hang on the manager's credit selection, and the fund has not yet seen a full credit cycle.

• SPHY This is below-investment-grade credit. Defaults and spread moves drive the price far more than Treasury yields do, and sell-offs in this asset class can be sharp.
• Fees here are already near the floor: SCYB lists 0.03% and HYLB matches at 0.05%, so the cost edge over the strongest peers is narrow.
• Scope is US high yield corporates, full stop. No investment-grade ballast, no emerging market debt, nothing to soften a credit drawdown from inside the fund.ssga.com

Full MANI profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠