iShares Global AAA-AA Govt Bond UCITS ETF

iShares Global AAA-AA Govt Bond UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker IAAA (ISIN IE00B87G8S03). It lets you buy a basket of holdings in a single trade, spreading your money across them rather than one company. In plain terms it is about lending to governments and companies in return for regular interest, which tends to be steadier than shares but grows more slowly, spread broadly across markets worldwide. Its largest holdings include CANADA (GOVERNMENT OF), AUSTRALIA (COMMONWEALTH OF) RegS and AUSTRALIA (COMMONWEALTH OF) RegS. With about 725 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 6.8%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names. Its biggest country exposures are ~20.1% Germany, ~16.7% Canada and ~11.6% Australia. Its heaviest sectors are ~99.6% Government and ~7.3% Other. Funds like this are often used as the steadier, lower-swing part of a portfolio — the ballast that cushions the ups and downs of shares. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.2% a year — about €20 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. Income such as dividends is paid out to you as cash (a distributing share class), and over the last year it paid out roughly 1.35% (its trailing yield). It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in Ireland and UCITS-regulated, a European standard built to protect everyday investors and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 21.5% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2012. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from iShares.)