SHYG vs USHY

SHYGAiShares 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

USHYAiShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate 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.

USHY The wide-angle lens on junk bonds: about 1,900 US dollar high yield corporate issues for 0.08% a year, a fifth of what the typical fund in its category charges. Broad, cheap, heavily traded, and it pays 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.

USHY The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated high yield corporate bonds.

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.

• USHY Charges 0.08% a year while the median high yield fund in its cohort runs 0.40%. Cheap rent on an expensive-to-run corner of the bond market.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds against the ICE BofA US High Yield Constrained Index: the broad market, not a curated slice of the most liquid names.ishares.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded in high yield, which tends to keep bid-ask spreads thin even on busy days.
• Pays monthly and has tracked its index tightly since its 2017 launch, one of the closer index matches in its peer group.

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.

• USHY High yield means below-investment-grade borrowers. When credit gets stressed this asset class drops with stocks instead of cushioning them.
• Cheaper tickets sit on the same shelf: SCYB at 0.03% and SPHY at 0.05%.
• This is a fund, not a bond ladder. No maturity date hands your principal back; the basket rolls on indefinitely.

Full SHYG profile⁠

Full USHY profile⁠