Harbor Scientific Alpha High-Yield ETF

Harbor Scientific Alpha High-Yield ETF (SIHY) is an actively managed fund of US dollar high-yield, or "junk," corporate bonds. The bonds are picked by the subadviser, Ares Systematic Credit, using quantitative models, and the fund does not track an index. It pays income monthly, and its payouts over the prior 12 months equaled 7.04% of its price as of October 27, 2026. It charges 0.48% a year, far more than index-based rivals such as USHY (0.08%) and SPHY (0.05%).

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, SIHY returned +2.4%, 3rd of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +4.7%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-7.8%); its best was 2023 (+13.3%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 13.3% (Dec 27, 2021 to Sep 27, 2022), recovered by Nov 28, 2023.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 226 securities; the ten largest made up 12.12% of assets.

The bonds mature in 5.9 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 6.43%.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors added a net $5.7M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.67%, +0.46%, -0.14%.

SIHY aims for total return, meaning income plus price gains. In normal markets it puts at least 80% of its net assets into below-investment-grade corporate bonds, or unrated bonds the managers judge to be of similar quality. Harbor is the adviser. Ares Systematic Credit Limited, the subadviser, chooses the bonds. To decide whether a bond counts as junk, Ares averages its available ratings from Moody's, S&P and Fitch. The fund holds mainly US dollar bonds, including some from foreign companies.

There is no index to follow. Ares forms ideas about what drives bond returns, tests them on historical data, and gives each idea weight in its models based on how well it predicted returns. Some signals look at single companies: financial strength, outlook and credit spread (the extra yield a bond pays over a Treasury). Others try to time the credit and interest-rate markets as a whole. An optimizer then sizes each position to seek the most return for the expected risk and trading cost. The team can override the models, and it may weigh ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors. Turnover was 48% a year.

The fund may use credit-default swaps, Treasury futures or other ETFs, but its July 31, 2026 holdings report showed none. It has no set duration or maturity target. On that date it held 226 positions, with an average maturity of 5.9 years and an average coupon of 6.43%.

• SIHY charges 0.48% a year, versus an average of 0.35% for the similar funds below (5th of 8, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $49 in the first year and $604 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

SIHY pays monthly from a diversified portfolio of junk bonds, but its credit risk makes it a supplement to safer bonds rather than a replacement for them.

SIHY could add monthly income: its payouts over 12 months equaled 7.04% of its price as of October 27, 2026. It launched in September 2021, so it has no record in the 2008 crisis or the 2020 COVID crash. In the 2022 bear market it fell 13.1%. Its deepest drop, 13.3% from December 2021 to September 2022, took about 14 months to recover. Its worst calendar year was 2022, at -7.89%. Anyone who had to sell shares in a year like that would have sold at depressed prices. Junk bonds often fall when the economy weakens, which is often when stocks fall too, so the fund is not a crash hedge. It costs 0.48% a year, which works out to $49 on $10,000 in the first year in the SEC's standard example. Past results don't predict future returns, 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).