SGOV vs SHV

SGOVAiShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF

SHVAiShares Trust iShares 0-1 Year Treasury Bond ETF

In short

SGOV A cash-parking tool that owns nothing but US Treasury bills maturing in three months or less, pays out monthly, and charges 0.09%. Launched in 2020, it has grown into one of the largest bond ETFs around.

SHV iShares' T-bill parking spot since 2007: nothing but US Treasuries maturing inside a year, rolled continuously, with income paid monthly. No corporate credit, no duration bets, 0.15% a year.

Stated mandate

SGOV The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. Treasury bills with remaining maturities of three months or less.

SHV The fund seeks to track an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities of one year or less.

Why people hold it

• SGOV 0.09% a year against a 0.14% median for its T-bill peer group, and it is very actively traded, which tends to keep the round-trip cost of getting in and out thin.
• One job, done plainly: track an index of Treasury bills with three months or less to run, and hand out the income monthly. Tracking has been close to the index.ishares.com
• Holdings mature in weeks, so interest-rate sensitivity is minimal and the share price moves very little when yields swing.ishares.com

• SHV Treasuries only, by mandate. The index it tracks holds US government debt maturing in a year or less, so no corporate credit enters the portfolio.ishares.com
• 0.15% a year, below the typical ultra-short bond fund, from a multi-billion-dollar fund that has been running since 2007.
• One of the more heavily traded names in the ultra-short space, and it has hugged its benchmark closely, which matters when the whole return is T-bill yield.
• Income arrives monthly rather than quarterly.

Worth knowing

• SGOV Cheaper bill funds exist. VBIL lists at 0.06% and CLIP at 0.07%, so the fee advantage here is over the pricier half of the group, not the whole field.
• Income tracks short-term rates. Bills roll every few weeks, so the monthly payout resets quickly in whichever direction rates go.
• The flip side of near-zero duration: no price kicker when rates drop, the way longer-dated Treasury funds get.

• SHV Payouts float with T-bill rates. Holdings mature and reroll within a year, so income resets quickly in both directions.
• Cheaper exists: Vanguard's VUSB charges 0.10% among the top-ranked ultra-short peers.
• This is the quiet corner of the bond market. By design there is no credit spread pickup and almost no interest-rate exposure to work with.

Full SGOV profile⁠

Full SHV profile⁠