SPDR Portfolio Mortgage Backed Bond ETF

SPDR Portfolio Mortgage Backed Bond ETF (SPMB), from State Street, tracks the Bloomberg U.S. MBS Index. That index holds fixed-rate bonds backed by pools of home loans and issued by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The fund's 0.04% expense ratio matches iShares MBS ETF (MBB) and sits just above Vanguard's VMBS at 0.03%. It pays income monthly, with a trailing 12-month yield of 4.21% as of October 27, 2026.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, SPMB returned -0.7%, 4th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +0.1%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-12.1%); its best was 2025 (+8.4%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 18.1% (Feb 2, 2021 to Oct 20, 2022), recovered by Jan 9, 2026.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 2,699 securities; the ten largest made up 6.55% of assets, and 8.19% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

The bonds mature in 24.9 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 3.7%.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors added a net $195.9M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.07%, +0.30%, +0.22%.

The fund aims to match the Bloomberg U.S. MBS Index, before fees. Bloomberg Index Services, which is not affiliated with State Street, runs the index. It covers agency mortgage pass-throughs. These are bonds backed by pools of home loans, where homeowners' monthly interest and principal payments "pass through" to bondholders. Pools are grouped by agency, loan program, coupon and origination year. A group qualifies if it is fixed rate, in US dollars, has at least $1 billion outstanding and has a weighted average maturity of at least one year. Collateralized mortgage obligations, jumbo loans, non-agency loans and hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages are excluded. The index is weighted by market value and updated on the last calendar day of each month. It had 1,101 securities as of July 31, 2026.

SSGA Funds Management uses sampling. That means it may buy a subset of index bonds with similar risk and return, and it keeps at least 80% of assets in index securities. As of June 30, 2026, the fund held 2,699 positions, and the top 10 made up just 6.55%.

Much of the buying happens through "to-be-announced" (TBA) contracts. The price and terms are agreed up front, but the exact loan pools are named only about two days before settlement. Until then, the fund parks money in short-term instruments, which helps explain its 8.19% cash weighting.

• SPMB charges 0.04% a year, versus an average of 0.34% for the similar funds below (2nd of 8, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $4 in the first year and $51 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It pays monthly income from mortgage bonds issued by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at a very low cost.

SPMB could add monthly income, with a trailing yield of 4.21% as of October 27, 2026. It costs 0.04% a year, about $4 in the first year on $10,000 in the SEC's standard example. Rising interest rates are the bigger risk. Its deepest drop was 18.1%, from February 2021 to October 2022, and it took 38.7 months to recover, in January 2026. In the 2022 bear market it fell 14.7%, and 2022 was its worst calendar year, at -11.99%. It gained 4.14% in 2020, though the price data doesn't cover the COVID crash itself. The fund launched after the 2008 crisis. A retiree forced to sell shares in a year like 2022 would have locked in losses. Average annual returns were 1.45% over the 10 years through December 31, 2025. 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).