SPTI vs USVN

SPTIAState Street SPDR Portfolio Intermediate Term Treasury ETF

USVNCUS Treasury 7 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.

USVN Most Treasury funds hand you a whole maturity range. USVN aims at a single point on the curve, tracking the ICE BofA Current 7-Year US Treasury Index and paying out monthly.

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.

USVN The fund seeks performance generally corresponding to the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA Current 7-Year US Treasury Index, before fees and expenses.

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.

• USVN A scalpel, not a blanket. The mandate is one maturity, the 7-year Treasury note, so your interest-rate exposure is a known quantity instead of a blended average.
• What it says is what it holds: US Treasuries only, in a plain 1940 Act fund, with no credit or currency exposure bolted on. Portfolio and prospectus line up closely.
• Monthly distribution cadence, and you get a specific Treasury maturity in one ticker rather than working an odd lot through a bond desk.

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.

• USVN At 0.15%, it sits at the category median but well above broad intermediate Treasury options like SPTI and SCHR at 0.03%. Precision costs something.
• A small, thinly traded fund. Spreads can be wider than the household names in the group, so limit orders do real work here.
• One maturity means no cushion from the rest of the curve, and the fund has only been trading since 2023.

Full SPTI profile⁠

Full USVN profile⁠