State Street® SPDR® Bloomberg Short Term High Yield Bond ETF

What this fund is

State Street® SPDR® Bloomberg Short Term High Yield Bond ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from SPDR, traded under the ticker SJNK (ISIN US78468R4083). 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 very short-term, cash-like instruments, aimed at protecting your money and earning a little interest rather than growing it, spread across its target market. It follows the Bloomberg US High Yield 350mn Cash Pay 0-5 Yr 2% Capped Index index (passive investing): it tracks the market rather than relying on a manager, keeping running costs down, and its largest holdings include SSI US GOV MONEY MARKET CLASS, MERIDIAN ARC HOLDCO LLC SR SECURED 144A 04/31 6.25 and ECHOSTAR CORP SR SECURED 11/29 10.75.

With about 1149 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 6%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names. 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 0.4% a year — about €40 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 3.7% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. 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 SPDR.)