MBBB vs SPBO

MBBBCVanEck Moody’s Analytics BBB Corporate Bond ETF

SPBOAState Street SPDR Portfolio Corporate Bond ETF

In short

MBBB BBB is the crowded bottom rung of investment grade. MBBB doesn't just buy the whole rung: it tracks a Moody's Analytics index that screens for BBB bonds that look attractively valued with comparatively lower downgrade risk.

SPBO The whole investment-grade corporate bond market in one ticker for three basis points. Most rivals sell you a maturity slice; SPBO owns the lot, and it undercuts other funds tracking the very same Bloomberg index.

Stated mandate

MBBB The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the MVIS Moody’s Analytics US BBB Corporate Bond Index, which selects attractively valued BBB-rated corporate bonds with comparatively lower downgrade risk.

SPBO The fund seeks investment results that generally correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Bond Index.

Why people hold it

• MBBB A credit screen, not a size-weighted index. The MVIS Moody's Analytics US BBB index selects on valuation and downgrade risk, which is the risk that actually matters at the edge of investment grade.vaneck.com
• It does the job it advertises: the portfolio has hugged its stated index closely, which is the whole assignment for a rules-based bond fund.
• Roughly 170 corporate bonds, spread across a single credit tier, with distributions paid on a monthly cadence.

• SPBO 0.03% a year against a category median of 0.19%. In bond land, where the yield does the heavy lifting, that fee gap is not a rounding error.
• Thousands of corporate bonds across the full maturity range, so you hold the broad IG corporate market instead of one duration bucket.ssga.com
• Same index, very different tolls: KORP charges 0.29%, JLQD 0.35%, JHCB 0.53%. SPBO sits at the cheap end of that list.
• Running since 2011, pays monthly, and tracks its benchmark about as closely as anything in the investment-grade corporate group.

Worth knowing

• MBBB The screen costs 0.25% a year. Plain-vanilla corporate bond giants like VCIT, USIG and SPIB run at a few basis points, so the model has to earn that gap.
• Small and thinly traded since its 2020 launch, so spreads can run wider than in the household-name corporate bond funds.
• By design it holds a filtered slice of BBB debt, not the whole market, so results can drift from a standard investment-grade corporate benchmark in either direction.

• SPBO Full maturity range means long-dated paper is in the mix, so the price moves more when rates move than short-maturity peers like IGSB or SPIB.
• Corporate credit only. No Treasuries or mortgages to lean on, so the fund rides the health of corporate borrowers as well as the rate cycle.ssga.com
• Investment grade by design, US issuers only. No high-yield or emerging-market bonds in the basket.

Full MBBB profile⁠

Full SPBO profile⁠