iShares US Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares US Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker IUGA (ISIN IE00BDFGJ841). One trade buys a whole basket of holdings, so your money is spread out instead of riding on a single 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 across its target market. Its largest holdings include BLK ICS USD LEAF AGENCY DIST, FNMA 30YR UMBS and FNMA 30YR UMBS. With about 10047 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 10.3%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names.

By geography it is weighted towards ~80.2% United States, ~4.6% Ireland and ~1.1% Supranational. By industry it concentrates most in ~51% Government and ~23.2% Securitized. 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 0.3% a year — about €30 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 4.01% (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 GBP. Its price has swung about 4.4% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2018. Like any investment, it can lose value as well as gain, and what it did before does not predict what it will do next. (Fund data sourced from iShares.)