JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (BBAG) is an index fund that tracks the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index. That index is a broad mix of investment-grade U.S. Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities and corporate bonds. The fund's 0.03% expense ratio ties with the cheapest similar funds and is below their 0.09% average. It is much smaller than rivals like AGG, with about $1.03 billion in net assets as of August 31, 2026, and it pays income monthly.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, BBAG returned -0.8%, 3rd of 8 among similar funds.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2024 (+1.3%); its best was 2025 (+7.3%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 7.4% (Apr 5, 2023 to Oct 19, 2023), recovered by Dec 14, 2023.

As of Aug 31, 2026, the fund held 1,591 securities; the ten largest made up 10.87% of assets, and 3.56% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

The bonds mature in 12.5 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 3.74%.

• Over the three months to Aug 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $62.1M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.27%, -1.30%, +0.38%.

BBAG aims to match the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index before fees. Bloomberg Index Services Limited provides the index. It covers the U.S. market for investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable bonds: Treasuries, other government debt, corporate bonds, mortgage pass-through securities (pools of home loans whose payments flow to investors) and asset-backed securities. Bonds are weighted by market value, so the biggest borrowers carry the most weight, led by the U.S. Treasury. The fund must keep at least 80% of its assets in bonds from the index. It does not buy junk bonds, and it puts no more than 25% in any one industry.

The fund doesn't buy every bond in the index. It uses "representative sampling": it holds a smaller set of bonds picked to match the index's yield, credit quality, maturity and duration (a measure of how much prices react to interest rates). As of August 31, 2026, it held 1,591 issues. Treasuries made up 45.8% of the fund, corporate bonds 24.6% and bonds from government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 18.1%.

The portfolio is rebalanced monthly, along with the index, and its turnover was 76%. The fund may also use mortgage TBAs. These are trades where the exact mortgage securities to be delivered are named only 48 hours before settlement. It may also use mortgage dollar rolls. The index's effective duration was 5.8 years as of May 29, 2026, which means a moderate sensitivity to interest rates.

• BBAG charges 0.03% a year, versus an average of 0.09% for the similar funds below (1st of 8, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $3 in the first year and $39 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It gives low-cost exposure to the whole U.S. investment-grade bond market, the kind of fund often used as a portfolio's main bond position.

BBAG can give a portfolio a broad, high-quality bond base for 0.03% a year. In the SEC's standard example, that comes to $39 over 10 years on a $10,000 investment. Its trailing 12-month yield was 4.87% as of October 27, 2026, and it pays monthly. But bonds don't always cushion stocks. The fund gained 7.27% in 2020 and lost 13.24% in 2022, its worst calendar year, as rising rates pushed bond prices down. It launched after the 2008 crisis. Over the five years to December 31, 2025, it lost 0.51% a year on average, so anyone drawing money from it after 2022 would have been selling at low prices. In price data starting February 2023, its deepest drop was 7.4%, and it recovered within 1.8 months, by December 14, 2023. Past results don't predict future ones, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by bond funds with the closest average maturity and issuer mix (N-PORT).