SPTI vs UFIV

SPTIAState Street SPDR Portfolio Intermediate Term Treasury ETF

UFIVBUS Treasury 5 Year Note 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.

UFIV One bond, one ticker. UFIV holds the most recently auctioned 5-year Treasury note and rolls into the new one at each auction, pinning you to a single point on the curve instead of a blended bucket of maturities.

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.

UFIV The fund seeks results that generally correspond to the performance of its benchmark, the Bloomberg US Treasury Bellwether 5Y Total Return USD Unhedged Index.

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.

• UFIV Single-security design: it owns the current on-the-run 5-year Treasury note and rolls automatically at each new auction, so the exposure stays at the 5-year tenor.fminvest.com
• Aims to pay dividends at least monthly, a more frequent cadence than the semiannual coupons on the underlying note.fminvest.com
• Tracks its Bloomberg 5Y Treasury bellwether index tightly, which is the whole job when the benchmark is effectively one bond.

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.

• UFIV 0.15% a year sits at the category median, but broad intermediate Treasury baskets like SPTI and SCHR charge 0.03%.
• One holding means no spread across maturities: the price tracks the 5-year yield in both directions, with duration parked near five years.fminvest.com
• A small, thinly traded fund, so bid-ask spreads carry more weight at the moment of the trade than they do in the giant Treasury ETFs.

Full SPTI profile⁠

Full UFIV profile⁠