SCHJ vs SLQD

SCHJASchwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF

SLQDAiShares 0-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

In short

SCHJ Short-dated corporate credit at index-fund pricing. SCHJ tracks the Bloomberg US 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index for 0.03% a year, sits at the bottom of its category's fee table, and pays monthly.

SLQD iShares' liquid investment-grade corporate universe, trimmed to bonds maturing inside five years, for 0.06% a year. You keep the corporate credit; you shed most of the long-bond rate swings.

Stated mandate

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

SLQD The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate bonds with remaining maturities of less than five years.

Why people hold it

• SCHJ 0.03% a year, against a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate ETFs. No peer in the cohort charges less.
• Thousands of individual bonds in the basket, so no single issuer's trouble moves the fund much.
• The 1-5 year maturity ceiling means less price swing per move in rates than intermediate corporate funds like VCIT or IGIB, which sit further out the curve.
• Interest is passed through monthly rather than quarterly, and the fund ranks in the top quartile of its investment-grade corporate peer group overall.

• SLQD Charges 0.06% a year, under a third of the typical investment-grade corporate bond fund in its group.ishares.com
• Tracks an index of dollar-denominated investment-grade corporates maturing in under five years, screened for liquid issues. Credit stays on, duration comes off.ishares.com
• Thousands of bonds in one billion-dollar-plus wrapper, with income paid monthly.
• Running since 2013 and one of the stronger implementations in the investment-grade corporate group.

Worth knowing

• SCHJ This is company debt, not Treasuries. Downgrades and defaults are part of the deal, and short maturities shrink that risk without erasing it.
• A mid-size fund with moderate trading volume, so spreads can run wider than at the category's giants. Limit orders matter more here.
• Launched in 2019, so its record is shorter than rivals that traded through earlier credit cycles.

• SLQD The window starts at zero years, so it holds paper close to maturity and reacts less to rate moves than intermediate peers like VCIT or IGIB. That cuts both ways.
• This is corporate credit, not Treasuries. Short maturities soften rate risk, they do not remove issuer risk.
• Monthly payouts float with prevailing rates and the bonds rolling through the portfolio. No fixed coupon at the fund level.

Full SCHJ profile⁠

Full SLQD profile⁠