NUHY vs SCYB

NUHYBNuveen ESG High Yield Corporate Bond

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

NUHY High yield with a conscience filter. NUHY tracks a Bloomberg MSCI index that screens junk-bond issuers on ESG data and leans toward the market's more tradable corners, at a fee below what the typical high-yield ETF charges.

SCYB Three basis points for the broad US high-yield corporate market. Schwab undercuts a category where the typical fund charges more than ten times as much, spreading the bet across roughly 1,800 bonds and paying monthly.

Stated mandate

NUHY The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the investment results of the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. High Yield Very Liquid ESG Select Index.

SCYB The fund follows a rules-based strategy intended to track the high-yield bond market, primarily through bonds in the Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate High Yield Total Return Index and similar derivatives.

Why people hold it

• NUHY Costs 0.30% a year, under the 0.40% median for high-yield bond ETFs.
• The ESG screen is written into the mandate, not bolted on: the fund's stated job is tracking the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. High Yield Very Liquid ESG Select Index.
• Stays close to that benchmark in practice, one of the tighter implementations among high-yield ETFs.
• Spreads the credit risk across roughly 400 bonds and pays income monthly.

• SCYB 0.03% a year against a category median of 0.40%. Even the cheap rivals sit above it: SPHY at 0.05%, USHY at 0.08%.
• Tracks the same Bloomberg US Corporate High Yield index as BKHY, which charges 0.22%. Same map, cheaper toll.
• Roughly 1,800 bonds, so no single issuer's blowup drives the outcome. Rules-based and passive, and it has hugged its index closely.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and pays monthly, which matters in a corner of the market where getting out cheaply is half the job.

Worth knowing

• NUHY The shares themselves trade thinly next to the category's giants, which can mean wider spreads on the way in and out.
• Nuveen's own NHYB is built on the same declared index for 0.08%, a meaningfully cheaper route to the same exposure.
• This is below-investment-grade credit. Default risk is real, and these bonds can slide alongside stocks when markets turn.

• SCYB High yield means below-investment-grade credit. These bonds behave more like stocks than Treasuries when the economy sours, and the extra income is the payment for that risk.
• Launched in 2023, so it has a shorter record than rivals that have traded through more credit cycles.
• The strategy can hold derivatives alongside the bonds themselves to track the index, one layer beyond plain bond ownership.

Full NUHY profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠