VGIT vs XSVN

VGITAVanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury ETF

XSVNBBondBloxx Bloomberg Seven Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF

In short

VGIT The middle of the Treasury curve, priced like an afterthought. VGIT holds government bonds maturing in 3 to 10 years for 0.03% a year, a quarter of what the typical Treasury fund in its peer group charges.

XSVN Most Treasury funds hand you a maturity bucket and let duration wander wherever the bond math takes it. XSVN aims at a fixed target instead: an index of US Treasuries held to roughly seven years of duration, for five basis points.

Stated mandate

VGIT Seeks to track a market-weighted Treasury bond index while maintaining an intermediate-term dollar-weighted average maturity.

XSVN The fund seeks to track an index composed of U.S. Treasury securities with a duration between 6 and 9 years.

Why people hold it

• VGIT Charges 0.03% a year against a 0.12% median for Treasury funds in its peer group. In bonds, where the coupon does the work, that fee gap is most of the argument.
• Plain index work: it follows the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury 3-10 Year Bond Index with very little slippage, one of the tighter implementations in its Treasury peer group.vanguard.com
• Running since 2009 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so spreads stay tight. Interest lands monthly.
• The portfolio is U.S. government paper only, a few dozen issues. No corporate borrowers to underwrite, no credit research required.vanguard.com

• XSVN Charges 0.05% a year, a third of the typical fee in its intermediate Treasury peer group.
• Duration is the target, not a byproduct. The index holds Treasuries with duration between six and nine years, so rate sensitivity stays anchored as bonds age.
• Has tracked its Bloomberg index closely, one of the tighter implementations among intermediate Treasury funds.
• Pays monthly, and sits in BondBloxx's target-duration lineup, the first suite of duration-specific Treasury ETFs when it launched in 2022.prnewswire.com

Worth knowing

• VGIT Intermediate maturities cut both ways. A 3 to 10 year book reprices more when yields move than a bill fund does, so the ride is bumpier than cash-like Treasury products.
• Treasuries only means no corporate credit premium in the yield. Income comes strictly from government coupons, and the monthly payout drifts with rates.

• XSVN Seven years of duration swings both ways: prices react more to rate moves than the three- and five-year rungs of the same ladder (XTRE, XFIV).bondbloxxetf.com
• SPTI and SCHR undercut it at 0.03%, though both track maturity buckets rather than pinning duration to a number.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy, so spreads can run wider than the largest intermediate Treasury funds.

Full VGIT profile⁠

Full XSVN profile⁠