SPTI vs TUA

SPTIAState Street SPDR Portfolio Intermediate Term Treasury ETF

TUACSimplify Short Term Treasury Futures Strategy ETF

In short

SPTI Middle-of-the-curve Treasuries and nothing else: notes maturing in 3 to 10 years, wrapped at 0.03% a year. Running since 2007, it is one of the cheapest ways to own that slice of the government bond market.

TUA Most intermediate Treasury ETFs just buy the bonds. TUA rents the exposure instead: short-term Treasury futures sized to match the duration of the 7-10 year Treasury index, with a calendar-quarter bar written into the mandate.

Stated mandate

SPTI The fund seeks to deliver returns generally matching the Bloomberg 3-10 Year U.S. Treasury Index before fees and expenses, investing in U.S. Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 3 to 10 years.

TUA The Fund seeks calendar-quarter total return that matches or exceeds the ICE US Treasury 7-10 Year Bond Index, using Treasury futures to target that index’s duration.

Why people hold it

• SPTI 0.03% a year sits in the cheapest tier of intermediate Treasury funds, well under the category norm and level with Schwab's SCHR at the floor.
• No credit guesswork. Roughly a hundred US Treasury notes, held to mirror the Bloomberg 3-10 Year U.S. Treasury Index.ssga.com
• Index tracking has been among the tightest in its peer group, and income lands monthly.
• Launched in 2007 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.

• TUA Unusually specific mandate: match or beat the ICE US Treasury 7-10 Year Bond Index each calendar quarter, using Treasury futures to hit that index's duration.simplify.us
• It stays on the job. The portfolio hews closely to the duration target in its prospectus rather than wandering into credit or off-mandate bond bets.
• A conventional 1940 Act fund that distributes monthly, so shareholders get a 1099 rather than the K-1 some futures vehicles generate.

Worth knowing

• SPTI Intermediate maturities carry real rate sensitivity: a 3-to-10-year book swings more when yields move than a short-bill fund does.
• Treasuries only. No corporates, mortgages or inflation-linked bonds, which makes it a building block rather than a full bond allocation.
• The monthly payout floats with whatever the Treasury curve is paying, so it moves with rates rather than sitting at a set level.

• TUA 0.25% a year is above the median for intermediate Treasury funds, and above IEF, which tracks the very same index for 0.15%.
• Futures-driven duration moves more sharply than the plain bond-owning funds in this group; TUA sits at the higher-volatility end of the cohort.
• The quarterly benchmark is a target, not a promise. Futures pricing and collateral income can pull results away from the index in either direction.

Full SPTI profile⁠

Full TUA profile⁠