SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF

SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF (SPAB), from State Street, tracks the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. That index is a broad mix of investment-grade U.S. Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities and corporate bonds. Its 0.03% expense ratio ties for the lowest among similar funds, which averaged 0.09%. It pays monthly, with a 4.24% trailing yield as of October 27, 2026, but it lost 13.17% in 2022 when interest rates rose.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, SPAB returned -1.2%, 5th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was -0.3% and its 10-year +1.4%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 9.4% and regained its old high 2.4 months after the low.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-13.1%); its best was 2019 (+8.6%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 18.7% (Aug 4, 2020 to Oct 20, 2022), not yet recovered.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 8,299 securities; the ten largest made up 4.39% of assets, and 4.34% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

The bonds mature in 12.7 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 3.93%.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors added a net $332.3M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.11%, +0.31%, +0.24%.

SPAB tries to match the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. Bloomberg Index Services, a company unaffiliated with State Street, runs the index. It covers U.S. dollar bonds rated investment grade, meaning Baa3/BBB- or higher based on the middle rating from Moody's, S&P and Fitch. It includes Treasuries, corporate bonds, mortgage pass-through securities and other asset-backed bonds. Each bond needs at least one year left to maturity and $300 million or more outstanding, and it must be fixed rate and taxable. Bonds are weighted by market value, so the biggest borrowers, led by the U.S. Treasury, count most. The index updates on the last business day of each month.

The index held 14,173 bonds as of July 31, 2026. The adviser, SSGA Funds Management, doesn't buy them all. It uses sampling, holding a smaller set meant to behave like the whole index. The fund held 8,299 issues as of June 30, 2026. Its 10 largest positions, all Treasury notes, made up just 4.4% of assets. About 29% of the index is agency mortgage pools from issuers such as Ginnie Mae and Fannie Mae. The fund gets much of that exposure through rolling 'to-be-announced' contracts. These are agreements to buy mortgage pools for future delivery, and the fund rolls them into new contracts before the pools arrive. In the meantime it parks cash in short-term instruments, including affiliated money market funds.

• SPAB 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 offers the whole U.S. investment-grade bond market in one fund for 0.03% a year, the kind of broad bond position many portfolios are built around.

SPAB could supply the bond side of a portfolio for 0.03% a year. In the SEC's standard example, that comes to about $39 over 10 years on $10,000. It pays monthly, with a trailing yield of 4.24% as of October 27, 2026. Its record in downturns is mixed. In late 2008 it fell 13.7% but recovered within about a month. In the 2020 COVID crash it dropped 9.4% and recovered in about 2.4 months. Rising rates did more damage. It lost 13.17% in 2022, its worst calendar year, and needed about 36.6 months to regain its January 2022 high. Its deepest drop, 18.7% from August 2020 to October 2022, had not fully recovered as of October 27, 2026. Anyone forced to sell during a stretch like that would lock in losses. 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).