PFFV vs PSK

PFFVBGlobal X Variable Rate Preferred ETF

PSKBState Street SPDR ICE Preferred Securities ETF

In short

PFFV Most preferred funds hand you a fixed coupon and a lot of rate sensitivity. PFFV screens for variable-rate preferreds only, so coupons reset off short-term benchmarks instead of standing still, at 0.25% a year with monthly payouts.

PSK Most preferred funds take the market as it comes. PSK's index counts only investment-grade-rated, $25-par preferreds, a quality filter written into the rules. Running since 2009, paying monthly.

Stated mandate

PFFV The fund seeks to provide investment results generally corresponding to the price and yield performance of the ICE U.S. Variable Rate Preferred Securities Index before fees and expenses.

PSK The fund seeks to track the total return of the ICE Exchange-Listed Fixed & Adjustable Rate Preferred Securities Index before fees and expenses. Its mandate covers non-convertible preferred securities meeting specified size, listing, currency, rating, and liquidity requirements.

Why people hold it

• PFFV Costs 0.25% a year, about half the typical preferred ETF fee and a fraction of what an actively run peer like FPE charges (0.83%).
• The whole point: an index of variable-rate preferreds, whose coupons reset off short-term benchmarks rather than locking in for the life of the security.
• Passive and plain-vanilla. Roughly 60 US preferred issues picked by published index rules, with income paid out monthly.
• Stacks up as one of the stronger builds in a crowded preferred-ETF field, mostly on cost and a clean, rules-based mandate.

• PSK Index rules admit only non-convertible preferreds rated investment grade, at $25 par with $250M minimum size. That screen is written in, not a manager's call.ssga.com
• 0.45% a year, a touch under the typical fee in a preferred category where costs tend to run high.
• Trading since 2009 under State Street, with monthly distributions and roughly 160 issues in the book.
• Sits in the upper half of its preferred-ETF peer group in our review, backed by a long-running fund at a large, established shop.

Worth knowing

• PFFV Preferred issuance skews to banks and insurers, so this is concentrated financials credit in bond clothing, spread across only about 60 positions.
• Resets cut both ways. The same floating mechanism that lifts coupons when short-term rates climb also drags them down when rates fall.
• Moderately traded and mid-sized rather than a heavyweight, so bid-ask spreads matter more here than in the largest preferred funds.

• PSK Cheaper shelf-mates exist: PFFV runs 0.25% and EVPF 0.20%, though each slices the preferred market its own way.
• Preferreds sit low in the capital stack and move with both rates and credit, so price swings run wider than a plain bond fund's.
• A mid-sized, moderately traded fund rather than one of the category's household-name giants.

Full PFFV profile⁠

Full PSK profile⁠