NEAR vs SCHO

NEARCiShares Short Duration Bond Active ETF

SCHOASchwab Short-Term U.S. Treasury ETF

In short

NEAR The active outlier in a peer group of penny-cheap Treasury trackers. NEAR's managers pick across roughly 1,800 short bonds, government and corporate, aiming to out-earn the Bloomberg U.S. 1-3 Year Government/Credit index while holding duration under three years.

SCHO Short Treasuries, stripped to the studs: roughly 100 US government bonds maturing in one to three years, wrapped in a 0.03% fee. Running since 2010, and one of the tighter builds in its corner of the bond market.

Stated mandate

NEAR The fund seeks total return above its Bloomberg U.S. 1-3 Year Government/Credit Bond Index benchmark while generally keeping portfolio duration below three years. It is actively managed through macro allocation and security selection focused on creditworthiness and valuation.

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

Why people hold it

• NEAR Active by design: the managers move between government and corporate paper on creditworthiness and valuation, rather than copying an index line for line.ishares.com
• Roughly 1,800 positions, so no single issuer carries much weight. Income lands monthly.
• Running since 2013 and still doing what the documents say: duration generally kept under three years, one of the tighter mandate fits in its peer group.
• Billions in assets and regular daily trading behind it, sizeable for an actively managed bond fund.

• SCHO 0.03% a year, a fifth of the 0.15% on the category's best-known fund, SHY. When every fund in the aisle owns the same Treasuries, the fee is the main lever.
• Pure government paper: the Bloomberg US Treasury 1-3 Year Index, tracked very closely. No corporate bonds, no credit spread dressed up as yield.schwabassetmanagement.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and pays income monthly, so entering and exiting rarely means wrestling the spread.
• Live since 2010 and among the strongest implementations in the short-Treasury peer group, which matters in a slice of the market where execution is the whole game.

Worth knowing

• NEAR Active costs money: 0.25% a year, above the peer median of 0.15% and far above index Treasury trackers like VGSH and SCHO at 0.03%.
• It buys corporate credit, not just government bonds, so issuer risk rides along. Pure Treasury peers such as SHY don't carry that.
• Outcomes hang on manager calls, not an index rulebook, so the portfolio can diverge from its benchmark in either direction.

• SCHO Bonds, not cash. One to three year maturities still reprice when rates move, so the share price wobbles instead of sitting flat.schwabassetmanagement.com
• Income floats with short-term Treasury yields rather than locking in, so the monthly payout moves up and down as rates do.
• The 0.03% fee is a three-way tie with VGSH and SPTS, and VGSH tracks the identical index, so cost alone will not separate them.

Full NEAR profile⁠

Full SCHO profile⁠