These 15 funds are the cheapest in their categories for short-term speculations.
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Owning a bond fund is one way to bet on a decline in interest rates. The table ranks the cheapest exchange-traded funds for three-month holding costs on a $10,000 investment.
| 3-month Holding Cost* | |||
| Liquidity Score | |||
| Ticker | Exchange-traded fund | ||
| Inflation-protected | |||
| STIP | iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond | $2.75 | A |
| VTIP | Vanguard Short-Term Infl-Prot Secs | 3.59 | A |
| SCHP | Schwab US TIPS | 3.60 | A |
| TIP | iShares TIPS Bond | 5.97 | A+ |
| IPE | SPDR Blmbg Barclays TIPS | 7.01 | B |
| TDTT | FlexShares iBoxx 3Yr Target Dur TIPS | 9.79 | B |
| Junk | |||
| HYGH | iShares Interest Rate Hedged High Yield Bond | 3.65 | B |
| HYLB | Xtrackers USD High Yield Corp Bd | 6.53 | A |
| SHYG | iShares 0-5 Year High Yield Corp Bd | 7.20 | A |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond | 9.94 | A+ |
| Tax-exempt | |||
| MUB | iShares National Muni Bond | 3.17 | A |
| VTEB | Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond | 4.28 | A |
| SUB | iShares Short-Term National Muni Bd | 6.37 | B |
| SHM | SPDR Nuveen Blmbg Barclays ST MunBd | 7.72 | A |
| TFI | SPDR Nuveen Blmbg Barclays Muni Bd | 9.00 | A |
*Cost of a $10,000 position held for three months. Reflects bid/ask spread, expense ratio and cost offset from securities lending.
Data sources: Morningstar, Bloomberg, fund distributors
Bid/ask spreads figure heavily, and expense ratios not so heavily, in the cost calculation for speculative plays. For long-term investing the reverse is true, and different ETFs rise to the top in cost efficiency. For long-term cost rankings see Best ETFs: TIPS, Best ETFs: Junk Bonds, and Best ETFs: Tax-Exempt Bonds.
For links to the three-month cost rankings in other categories, see Best ETFs for Trading.