This ETF offers broad-based exposure to investment grade U.S. bonds, making GBF a building block for any investor constructing a balanced long-term portfolio as well as a potentially attractive safe haven for investors pulling money out of equity markets. While GBF can potentially be a one stop shop for fixed income exposure, a close look at the composition of this fund is advised. Many may find the significant allocations to MBS and Treasuries somewhat insufficient for their return objectives; increased corporate bond exposure through LQD may result in a better balance and more attractive return. While GBF includes hundreds of individual securities, this ETF actually only holds a fraction of the bonds that make up the underlying benchmark; the sampling strategy employed avoids illiquid issues, but may lead to tracking error. GBF has reasonable levels of liquidity-- there are more liquid options out there-- but the expense ratio for this fund is pretty low and is among the lowest in the Category. However, for investors looking to avoid compounding costs and tracking error, the broad-based BND may be a better option for U.S. fixed income exposure.
The adjacent table gives investors an individual Realtime Rating for GBF on several different metrics, including liquidity, expenses, performance, volatility, dividend, concentration of holdings in addition to an overall rating. The "A+ Metric Rated ETF" field, available to ETFdb Pro members, shows the ETF in the Total Bond Market with the highest Metric Realtime Rating for each individual field. To view all of this data, sign up for a free 14-day trial for ETFdb Pro. To view information on how the ETFdb Realtime Ratings work, click here.
View the Category ReportMetric | Metric Realtime Rating | A+ Metric Rated ETF |
---|---|---|
Liquidity | B | n/a |
Expenses | B+ | n/a |
Performance | ||
Volatility | ||
Dividend | ||
Concentration |
The following tables and charts contain in-depth metrics for this ETF and compare it to similar peer ETFs within its ETFdb.com Category.
Asset | Percentage |
---|---|
Federal/Central debt | 60.41% |
Corporate debt | 38.35% |
Municipal debt | 0.85% |
ETF Cash Component | 0.35% |
Collateralized debt | 0.05% |
Bond Sector | Percentage |
---|---|
Government/Treasury | 57.34% |
Corporate | 38.35% |
Agency | 2.81% |
Municipal | 0.85% |
ETF Cash Component | 0.35% |
Provincial | 0.26% |
Mortgage Backed | 0.05% |
Bond Sector | Percentage |
---|---|
Government/Treasury Unsecured Note | 41.6% |
Corporate Senior Note | 32.52% |
Government/Treasury Bond | 14.89% |
Supranational Senior Note | 1.11% |
Agency Unsecured Note | 1.04% |
Corporate Senior Subordinated Note | 1.03% |
Corporate Note | 1.0% |
Agency Bond | 0.93% |
Government/Treasury Senior Note | 0.84% |
Agency Senior Note | 0.83% |
Corporate Senior Debenture | 0.69% |
Corporate First Mortgage Bond | 0.57% |
Municipal Build America Bond | 0.53% |
Corporate Subordinated Note | 0.34% |
Municipal Bond | 0.32% |
Corporate Bond | 0.23% |
Corporate Senior Bank Note | 0.18% |
Corporate Junior Subordinated Note | 0.16% |
Corporate Unsecured Note | 0.15% |
Provincial Bond | 0.15% |
Corporate First Mortgage Note | 0.07% |
Provincial Unsecured Note | 0.05% |
Unknown | 0.05% |
Provincial Senior Debenture | 0.03% |
Provincial Senior Note | 0.03% |
Corporate Debenture | 0.02% |
Agency Debenture | 0.01% |
Corporate Secured Note | 0.01% |
Corporate Mortgage Bond | 0.0% |
Other | 0.61% |
Coupon Range | Percentage |
---|---|
0% to 1% | 0.05% |
1% to 2% | 16.06% |
2% to 3% | 36.33% |
3% to 4% | 22.99% |
4% to 5% | 12.61% |
5% to 6% | 5.55% |
6% to 7% | 4.04% |
7% to 8% | 1.53% |
8% to 9% | 0.4% |
9% to 10% | 0.09% |
Greater Than 10% | 0.02% |
ETF Cash Component | 0.35% |
Credit | Percentage |
---|---|
AAA | 57.92% |
AA | 4.51% |
A | 13.69% |
BBB | 21.75% |
BB | 1.73% |
B | 0.02% |
Below B | 0.0% |
Not Rated | 0.0% |
ETF Cash Component | 0.35% |
Rating Unknown | 0.02% |
Maturity | Percentage |
---|---|
Less Than 1 Year | 0.08% |
1-3 Years | 27.51% |
3-5 Years | 20.72% |
5-7 Years | 13.36% |
7-10 Years | 12.57% |
10-15 Years | 1.58% |
15-20 Years | 3.37% |
20-30 Years | 19.72% |
30+ Years | 0.75% |
ETF Cash Component | 0.35% |
This section compares the cost efficiency of this ETF to peers in the same ETFdb.com Category.
This ETF is not currently available for commission free trading on any platforms.
There are 26 other ETFs in the Total Bond Market ETFdb.com Category that are also eligible for commission free trading:
This section shows how this ETF has performed relative to its peer group ETFdb.com Category.
This section compares the fund flows of this ETF to peers in the same ETFdb.com Category.
The following charts can be customized to display historical performance in a number of different formats, including line charts, bar charts, and candlesticks. Time periods can be adjusted to increase or decrease the period shown, ranging from five minutes to several months.
The following chart also includes the option to compare the performance of GBF relative to other ETFs and benchmarks or to include indicators such as Bollinger Bands, relative strength, and moving averages.
This section shows how the P/E multiple of this ETF compares to the peer group ETFdb.com Category.
This section shows how the dividend yield of this ETF compares to the peer group ETFdb.com Category.
This section shows how the volatility of this ETF compares to the peer group ETFdb.com Category.
Fact sheets are issued by the ETF provider and framed by ETFdb.com. Information contained within the fact sheet is not guaranteed to be timely or accurate.