State Street® SPDR® Bloomberg International Treasury Bond ETF

What this fund is

State Street® SPDR® Bloomberg International Treasury Bond ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from SPDR, traded under the ticker BWX (ISIN US78464A5166). In a single purchase you get a diversified basket of holdings rather than a stake in just one business. 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. It follows the Bloomberg Global Treasury ex-US Capped Index index (passive investing): it tracks the market rather than relying on a manager, keeping running costs down, and its largest holdings include JAPAN (5 YEAR ISSUE) BONDS 12/30 1.6, JAPAN (10 YEAR ISSUE) BONDS 03/28 0.1 and REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA SR UNSECURED 144A REGS 03/37 4. With about 1400 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 2.8%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names.

Its biggest country exposures are ~23% Japan, ~5% United Kingdom and ~5% France. Its heaviest sectors are ~98.8% Government and ~0% Materials. 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 0.35% a year — about €35 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in the United States and trades in USD.

Its price has swung about 7.7% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2007. 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 SPDR.)