SCHP vs STPZ

SCHPASchwab US TIPS ETF

STPZCPIMCO 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index Exchange-Traded Fund

In short

SCHP Inflation insurance in the plainest wrapper available: SCHP owns the full maturity range of Treasury inflation-protected bonds and tracks its Bloomberg index for three basis points a year.

STPZ Inflation protection on a short leash. STPZ indexes only TIPS maturing in one to five years, pairing CPI-linked principal with less rate sensitivity than long-dated linkers. It has worked this niche since 2009, at a fee above the category norm.

Stated mandate

SCHP The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of an index composed of inflation-protected U.S. Treasury securities.

STPZ The Fund seeks total return that closely tracks its specified U.S. inflation-linked Treasury index before fees and expenses. It uses indexing and representative sampling rather than trying to outperform the index.

Why people hold it

• SCHP 0.03% a year, a quarter of the typical Treasury-fund fee and level with the cheapest names in the group (VGIT, VCSH).
• One job, done literally: only inflation-linked US Treasuries, whose principal adjusts with the official consumer price index.
• Running since 2010, now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and hugs the Bloomberg Series-L index closely.
• Passive, no maturity tilt, no manager view: one of the cleaner builds among Treasury ETFs.

• STPZ The benchmark holds Treasury inflation-linked bonds maturing in one to five years: you get the CPI adjustment to principal without the price swings of 20-year linkers.yahoo.com
• Straight indexing. PIMCO uses representative sampling to track the benchmark rather than trying to beat it, so the name on the tin is what you own.pimco.com
• Live since 2009 and moderately traded, so ordinary retail-size orders in a niche corner of the Treasury market usually don't have to hunt for a counterparty.

Worth knowing

• SCHP Inflation-linked is not rate-proof. This spans the whole maturity spectrum, so prices move with real yields.
• Distributions are irregular. Coupons sit on an inflation-adjusted principal, so the cash arrives lumpy, not as a steady check.
• About 50 bonds, all Uncle Sam. No credit spread, no corporate yield pickup; inflation and duration are the whole story.

• STPZ Cost is the trade-off: 0.20% a year, above the 0.12% typical of Treasury bond ETFs, while index peers such as SCHP and VGIT charge 0.03%.
• Distributions are irregular. TIPS income moves with inflation accruals, so payouts arrive unevenly rather than as a level check.
• Narrow by design: roughly two dozen short-dated government bonds. No corporate credit, no long end, so it behaves nothing like a core bond holding.

Full SCHP profile⁠

Full STPZ profile⁠