SHYG vs SPHY

SHYGAiShares 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

In short

SHYG High yield without the long-bond whiplash. SHYG owns only junk bonds maturing inside five years, keeping interest-rate sensitivity low while the credit exposure does the work. iShares has run it since 2013.

SPHY State Street's junk-bond workhorse: roughly 1,900 US high yield bonds in one wrapper for 0.05% a year, a fraction of what the typical high yield ETF charges, with income paid monthly.

Stated mandate

SHYG The fund seeks to track an index of short-term, U.S. dollar-denominated high-yield corporate bonds, providing short-duration exposure intended to pursue income while managing interest-rate risk.

SPHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

Why people hold it

• SHYG The maturity screen is the whole point: only short-dated high-yield bonds, which trims interest-rate sensitivity while keeping the below-investment-grade credit exposure intact.ishares.com
• At 0.30% a year it sits below the typical high-yield bond ETF, where fees cluster nearer 0.40%.
• Spread across roughly 1,200 bonds, pays monthly, and tracks its index about as tightly as anything in the high-yield group.
• A multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund that has been open since 2013, so the plumbing has a long record behind it.

• SPHY 0.05% a year against a peer-group median about eight times higher. In high yield, the fee comes straight out of coupon income, so the gap does real work.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds tracking the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, broad enough that no single issuer's trouble dominates the portfolio.ssga.com
• Live since 2012, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and has stuck tightly to its stated index rather than drifting from the mandate.
• Distributions arrive monthly, in step with how the underlying coupons come in.

Worth knowing

• SHYG The short-maturity screen costs you: broad high-yield rivals SCYB (0.03%), SPHY (0.05%) and USHY (0.08%) charge a fraction of the fee.
• Shorter maturities dial down rate risk, not credit risk. These are still below-investment-grade borrowers, which is the volatile end of the bond market.
• US dollar-denominated corporate bonds only, so no currency or foreign-credit diversification in the mix.

• SPHY This is below-investment-grade credit. Defaults and spread moves drive the price far more than Treasury yields do, and sell-offs in this asset class can be sharp.
• Fees here are already near the floor: SCYB lists 0.03% and HYLB matches at 0.05%, so the cost edge over the strongest peers is narrow.
• Scope is US high yield corporates, full stop. No investment-grade ballast, no emerging market debt, nothing to soften a credit drawdown from inside the fund.ssga.com

Full SHYG profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠