SPTU vs TBLL

SPTUAState Street SPDR Portfolio Ultra Short T-Bill ETF

TBLLAInvesco Short Term Treasury ETF

In short

SPTU State Street already owns the T-bill aisle with BIL. SPTU is the house undercutting itself: the same firm's bill exposure at 0.05% a year, stretched across the whole one-to-twelve-month curve instead of just the front slice.

TBLL The bill fund that stretches to a full year. TBLL owns U.S. Treasuries maturing in one year or less and charges 0.08%, well under the typical fund in its 0-1 year Treasury group.

Stated mandate

SPTU The ETF seeks to provide investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US Treasury Bill Index. It invests in U.S. Treasury bills with remaining maturities of at least one month and less than twelve months.

TBLL The fund invests primarily in U.S. Treasury obligations with maturities of one year or less and seeks exposure to the ICE U.S. Treasury Short Bond Index.

Why people hold it

• SPTU Charges 0.05% a year, roughly a third of the 0.14% on State Street's older, far larger bill fund BIL for a closely related job.ssga.com
• Owns the full bill curve, one month out to twelve, where most cash-parking rivals stop at three months. One ticker instead of a hand-built ladder.ssga.com
• Plain plumbing: a passive index fund holding roughly 50 US Treasury bills. No corporate paper, no derivatives overlay, no yield-chasing detour.
• Its portfolio matches the label it sells: the ICE BofA US Treasury Bill Index, and nothing hiding behind it.

• TBLL Charges 0.08% a year against a 0.14% median for its 0-1 year Treasury cohort, and undercuts BIL, the 1-3 month bill fund at 0.14%.
• Fishes the entire under-one-year curve, about 90 Treasury positions, instead of camping in 1-3 month paper like much of the peer shelf.
• Live since 2017 and a multi-billion-dollar fund, with index tracking among the tighter implementations in its 17-fund group.
• Distributions land monthly, and the portfolio is Treasury obligations only, so no corporate credit rides along.

Worth knowing

• SPTU Launched in October 2025, so the track record is thin and the fund is still building its asset base next to entrenched competitors.
• Thinly traded so far. Spreads can run wider and less predictable than in the category's most heavily traded names.
• Reaching out to twelve-month bills means slightly more price sensitivity to rate moves than 0-3 month funds like VBIL or CLIP, and payouts have not settled into a fixed schedule.

• TBLL Not the cheapest seat in the row: XONE runs 0.03% and VBIL 0.06%, so the cost gap is a few basis points.
• Reaching out to one-year maturities carries slightly more interest-rate sensitivity than a strict 1-3 month bill portfolio.
• Moderately traded rather than the volume leader of its category, so spreads deserve a look on larger orders.

Full SPTU profile⁠

Full TBLL profile⁠