SPTL vs TLH

SPTLAState Street SPDR Portfolio Long Term Treasury ETF

TLHBiShares 10-20 Year Treasury Bond ETF

In short

SPTL Pure duration, cheap. SPTL holds every US Treasury with 10 or more years left to run and charges 0.03% to do it. The long end of the curve as a plain building block, running since 2007.

TLH A precision tool for one slice of the yield curve: about 60 US Treasuries maturing in 10 to 20 years, tracked against a single ICE index since 2007. No corporate credit, no curve guessing, just that band.

Stated mandate

SPTL The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg Long U.S. Treasury Index.

TLH The fund seeks to track the ICE U.S. Treasury 10-20 Year Bond Index, which represents U.S. Treasury obligations with maturities in the 10-to-20-year range.

Why people hold it

• SPTL Three basis points, a quarter of the typical fee among Treasury funds. It is one of State Street's Portfolio ETFs, the suite built as low-cost core exposure.ssga.com
• Covers the whole long end, not one slice: roughly 110 Treasuries with 10-plus years to maturity, market-cap weighted and reconstituted at each month's end.ssga.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades very actively, tracks its index closely, and pays monthly. Among the stronger implementations in its Treasury peer group.

• TLH One job, defined narrowly: track the ICE U.S. Treasury 10-20 Year Bond Index. Roughly 60 government bonds, a single maturity band, no corporate credit in the mix.ishares.com
• It stays close to that index and trades actively, so entering and exiting a position is generally straightforward rather than a spread-hunting exercise.
• Live since 2007 and now a multi-billion-dollar iShares fund, it has traded through the financial crisis and every rate cycle since.
• Interest arrives monthly rather than quarterly, which suits anyone matching bond income to a regular schedule.

Worth knowing

• SPTL Long bonds move. State Street notes the fund may be more sensitive to interest rate swings than shorter-duration vehicles, and it sits at the volatile end of Treasury funds.ssga.com
• Government paper only. No corporate credit and no inflation adjustment, so peers like VCSH or SCHP cover different ground.

• TLH At 0.15% it runs above the typical Treasury ETF and well above the cheapest rivals, such as VGIT at 0.03%. The targeted maturity band carries a price.
• Long maturities move hard on rate news. A given shift in yields hits 10-to-20-year paper far more than short-term Treasuries, in both directions.
• This is one segment of the curve, not a whole bond sleeve: no corporates, no TIPS, no short end to cushion the ride.

Full SPTL profile⁠

Full TLH profile⁠