NEAR vs SPTS

NEARCiShares Short Duration Bond Active ETF

SPTSAState Street SPDR Portfolio Short Term 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.

SPTS U.S. Treasury notes maturing in one to three years, wrapped at three basis points. SPTS sits in the cheapest tier of the short-Treasury aisle, charging a fifth of the category median for the same plain-vanilla job.

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.

SPTS The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury Index before fees and expenses, providing exposure to U.S. Treasury securities with remaining maturities between 1 and 3 years.

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.

• SPTS Charges 0.03% a year against a 0.15% median for short-Treasury funds. On cash-like money, the fee line is the part that doesn't drift.
• Follows the Bloomberg 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury Index closely, one of the tightest index fits among its short-Treasury peers.ssga.com
• Roughly 100 U.S. Treasury notes and nothing else. No corporates, no mortgages, no credit surprises hiding in the basket. Distributions land monthly.
• Trading since 2011 and now a multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund, so it isn't a thin newcomer you have to nurse in and out of.

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.

• SPTS Short maturities dampen price swings, they don't erase them. When short-term rates move, the fund's price and its payouts move too.
• Government paper only, so there's no credit spread in the income. The yield is whatever the front end of the Treasury curve is paying.
• VGSH and SCHO match the 0.03% fee on the same slice of the curve. Cost alone won't separate them; execution and platform access will.

Full NEAR profile⁠

Full SPTS profile⁠