Schwab Long-Term U.S. Treasury ETF

Schwab Long-Term U.S. Treasury ETF (SCHQ) is an index fund that tracks the Bloomberg US Long Treasury Index. That index holds U.S. government bonds with 10 or more years left until they mature. The fund's 0.03% annual expense ratio matches SPDR's SPTL and Vanguard's VGLT and is well below the 0.15% average for similar funds. The trade-off is that its price swings a lot when interest rates move: it lost 29.42% in 2022.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, SCHQ returned -5.8%, 5th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was -6.8%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash, while stocks fell, it gained 14%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-29.5%); its best was 2020 (+17.7%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 46.2% (Aug 4, 2020 to Oct 19, 2023), not yet recovered.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 99 securities; the ten largest made up 21.37% of assets.

The bonds mature in 21.8 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 3.53%.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors withdrew a net $129.4M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -0.68%, +0.50%, +1.03%.

SCHQ is an index fund managed by Charles Schwab Investment Management. Its index, the Bloomberg US Long Treasury Index, includes publicly issued U.S. Treasury bonds with at least 10 years left to maturity and at least $300 million outstanding. The bonds must be fixed-rate and in U.S. dollars. The index leaves out Treasury STRIPS, which are zero-coupon bonds made by splitting off a bond's interest payments. Each bond is weighted by its market value, and the index is updated on the last business day of each month.

The fund must keep at least 90% of its net assets in bonds from the index. Schwab doesn't buy every bond. It uses sampling: it holds a smaller set of bonds chosen to match the index's maturities, yield and sensitivity to interest rates. As of June 30, 2026, the fund held 99 bond issues with an average of 21.8 years to maturity and an average coupon (interest rate) of 3.53%. No single bond made up more than about 2.2% of assets, and the 10 largest made up 21.37%. The fund may also lend out its bonds to earn extra income.

The number that matters most is duration, a measure of how much a bond's price reacts to interest rates. The index's duration was 14.60 years as of December 31, 2025. Roughly, that means a one-point rise in long-term rates would cut prices by about 14.6%.

• SCHQ charges 0.03% a year, versus an average of 0.15% 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).

Long-term Treasuries have sometimes risen when stocks fell, as in early 2020, but 2022 showed that this offset can fail when interest rates jump.

SCHQ holds U.S. government bonds that have at times moved opposite to stocks. During the 2020 COVID crash it gained 14% while stocks plunged, and its own brief 14.8% dip in March 2020 had recovered by August. In 2022 it fell along with stocks and lost 29.42% for the year, its worst calendar year. Its deepest drop, 46.2% from August 2020 to October 2023, had not recovered as of October 27, 2026. A retiree forced to sell in a year like 2022 would have locked in large losses. The fund launched in 2019, so it has no record from 2008. It pays income monthly, with a trailing 12-month yield of 4.91% as of October 27, 2026. It costs about $3 a year per $10,000 under the SEC's standard example. Past results don't predict the future, 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).