TLT vs UTHY

TLTBiShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

UTHYBUS Treasury 30 Year Bond ETF

In short

TLT The long bond's most famous ticker. iShares launched TLT in 2002, and it became the default way to take a view on 20-year-plus Treasuries: index-tracked, heavily traded, with a deep listed options market.

UTHY Most long-Treasury funds blend dozens of bonds into an average. UTHY holds one: the current 30-year, rolling into the next when it's auctioned. Pure exposure to the far end of the curve, with monthly payouts instead of a bond's semiannual coupons.

Stated mandate

TLT The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities greater than twenty years, providing targeted exposure to long-duration government debt.

UTHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of its Bloomberg Treasury benchmark.

Why people hold it

• TLT Pure long-duration Treasuries: it tracks the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index, government debt maturing in 20 years or more, no corporate credit, no short-end dilution.ishares.com
• One of the most actively traded bond ETFs, with a deep listed options market around it, so positions and hedges can be built and unwound on-screen.marketchameleon.com
• Running since 2002 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, paying distributions monthly.

• UTHY Single-security design. It tracks the Bloomberg US Treasury Bellwether 30Y index, meaning the newest 30-year bond, then hands off to the next one at auction. No maturity bucket, no drifting average duration.fminvest.com
• The underlying bond pays interest twice a year. The fund aims to pay monthly, and handles the rolling into each newly issued 30-year for you.fminvest.com
• At 0.15%, it sits exactly at the median fee for long-Treasury ETFs, same sticker as TLT, the category's best-known name.
• Part of F/m's US Benchmark Series, the shelf that first wrapped an individual Treasury in an ETF, with a fund at each benchmark point on the curve.fminvest.combusinesswire.com

Worth knowing

• TLT You pay for that liquidity: 0.15% a year, while BBLB tracks the very same index for 0.04% and VGLT charges 0.03% for long Treasuries.
• Long duration cuts both ways. Bonds this far out the curve move sharply when long-term yields shift, so the ride is far more volatile than a short-term Treasury fund.ishares.com
• Concentrated by design: roughly 50 Treasury bonds clustered at the long end, and the monthly payout floats with the coupons of whatever the index holds.

• UTHY One bond, no cushion. You get the full rate sensitivity of a fresh 30-year and nothing else in the portfolio to soften a move in long yields.fminvest.com
• Cheaper routes to the long end exist: VGLT charges 0.03% and BBLB 0.04%, against 0.15% here.
• Smaller and less heavily traded than the long-Treasury giants, and it launched in 2023, so the track record is short.

Full TLT profile⁠

Full UTHY profile⁠