How iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) compares with the whole market and its popular alternatives

SGOV at a glance

This section summarizes the key facts about the fund, its returns over periods from one to ten years and the risk it has carried, with dividends reinvested throughout. These figures serve as the baseline for every comparison that follows.

Note: SGOV began trading on May 28, 2020, so every figure here, including its worst decline, covers only the time since then. None of them reflect the dot-com bust, the 2008 financial crisis or six other sell-offs.

• SGOV has not had a losing calendar year since it began trading in 2020; it gained in all five full years, at worst 0.1% in 2021.
• SGOV is trading within 1% of its all-time high.
• SGOV's deepest decline since it began trading in 2020 was 0.3%, from August to September 2026. It took one month from the low to climb back to its old high.

How does SGOV rank among all ETFs?

This section ranks SGOV on return, volatility, risk-adjusted return and worst decline against every ETF worth at least $100 million with enough history. Where the comparisons with its popular alternatives show how SGOV stacks up against its peers, these rankings show where it stands in the market as a whole.

• SGOV is among the steadier ETFs: its price swings rank in the top 1% of the 1,560 ETFs with at least $100 million in assets, where the top is the calmest.
• SGOV's 3-year return ranks in the bottom 7% of the 1,949 ETFs with at least $100 million in assets with 3 years of history.

Ranked against U.S.-listed ETFs with at least $100M in assets that have enough history for each measure, so the count changes from row to row; smaller ETFs and leveraged funds are left out. Lower volatility and smaller declines rank higher.

How do SGOV's risk and return compare with its alternatives?

This map plots each investment's annual return over the past 5 years against its volatility, the size of its typical price swings. Investments toward the upper left earned more for a smoother ride, and those toward the lower right earned less for a rougher one. The dashed lines cross at SGOV, which divides the map into what did better or worse on each measure.

• None of the ten popular alternatives earned more than SGOV over the past 5 years with smaller price swings, so every higher return on the map came with a bumpier ride.
• Six of the ten popular alternatives earned less than SGOV over the past 5 years while swinging more, the weaker corner of the map.
• Over the past 5 years, SGOV returned 3.8% a year, less than the S&P 500's 12.7%, with lower volatility (0.3% against 17.1%).

Green points earned more than SGOV with less volatility; red points earned less with more. Hover over a point for its figures. Total returns with dividends reinvested, annualized.

Has SGOV consistently beaten its popular alternatives?

This section compares SGOV with the investments people most often weigh against it, checking each one over seven periods from one month to five years. Counting how often an alternative earned more than SGOV helps separate lasting outperformance from a single strong stretch.

• None of the 22 popular alternatives outperformed SGOV in at least 3 of 5 short-term and 2 of 2 long-term timeframes. The closest was USFR.
• BIL earned more for the risk it took than SGOV (a higher Sharpe ratio) and fell less in its worst decline of the past 10 years.
• ICSH outperformed SGOV over all two long-term periods but in none of the five short-term ones, so SGOV has had the better of it lately.

A green cell means the alternative earned more than SGOV over that period. "Qualified" marks those that did so in at least 3 of 5 short-term periods and 2 of 2 long-term periods.

How did SGOV do year by year?

This table shows each investment's total return in every full calendar year since 2021, along with where SGOV ranked among its popular alternatives each year. Annual results reveal how consistently each one kept pace with SGOV and how far its good and bad years diverged, detail that multiyear averages tend to smooth over.

Note: SGOV began trading on May 28, 2020, so the table starts with 2021, its first full calendar year, and cannot show how it fared during the dot-com bust, the 2008 financial crisis or six other sell-offs.

• SGOV finished ahead of the S&P 500 in one of its five full calendar years, and behind it in each of the last three.
• Among its popular alternatives, MINT came out ahead of SGOV most often, in three of the five years both traded.
• Ranked against its popular alternatives each year, SGOV finished in the top quarter in one of five years and in the bottom quarter in no. In 2025, it ranked 6 of 12.

Newest year first. Green marks a year in which the fund came out ahead of SGOV; gray means the two finished within a fraction of a point. The rank row places SGOV among the alternatives that traded the full year; dark green is the top quarter and red the bottom quarter.

How did SGOV do in stock market crashes?

This section measures how far SGOV, the S&P 500 and each alternative fell from peak to trough during every major market crash since 2000. A smaller decline means an investment held up better, and comparing results across crashes shows whether that resilience was consistent or a one-off.

Note: SGOV began trading on May 28, 2020, so its row reads "Not yet trading" for the dot-com bust, the 2008 financial crisis or six other sell-offs. The older alternatives and the S&P 500 show how those crashes played out.

• SGOV fell less than the S&P 500 in all two crashes it has traded through. The clearest case was the 2022 bear market, when SGOV fell 0.0% and the S&P 500 fell 24.5%.
• None of its popular alternatives fell less than SGOV in most of the crashes they both traded through.
• SGOV began trading after the 2008 financial crisis, but three of its popular alternatives lived through it. The mildest fall among them was BIL's 0.8%, against 55.2% for the S&P 500.

Newest crash first. Each figure is the fund's deepest fall within the crash window; green means a smaller fall than SGOV.

How closely does SGOV move with the S&P 500?

Upside capture measures how much of the S&P 500's gains an investment kept in the months the market rose, and downside capture how much of its losses it took in the months the market fell. An investment that captures more of the gains than the losses has compounded ahead of the market over time. This section compares SGOV with its popular alternatives on both measures, and on beta (how strongly each has moved with the market), over the past 5 years.

• Over the past 5 years, SGOV captured 8% of the S&P 500's gains in rising months and -7% of its losses in falling months, with a beta of 0.01. That is a defensive profile: it gave up some of the market's upside in exchange for smaller losses.

Monthly total returns over the past 5 years, measured against SPY. 100% capture or a beta of 1.00 means moving in line with the S&P 500. Green marks a better figure than SGOV's: more upside, less downside or a higher capture ratio. Sorted by capture ratio.

What diversifies SGOV?

Correlation measures how closely two investments move together, on a scale from 1 (in lockstep) through 0 (unrelated) to -1 (in opposite directions). This section lists large ETFs and stocks whose returns have had a low correlation with SGOV's. Because such investments tend not to fall at the same time, pairing SGOV with them can reduce a portfolio's overall swings.

• Among large ETFs, LVHI, DXJ and EMLP have moved largely independently of SGOV over the past 5 years, with correlations of 0.17 or lower, and each still earned a positive 5-year return.
• Among large stocks, CAH, CLS and FIX have moved largely independently of SGOV over the past 5 years, with correlations of 0.16 or lower, and each still earned a positive 5-year return.

Only ETFs with at least $1.0B in assets and stocks worth at least $10B, with a correlation below 0.5 over the past 5 years and a positive return, are included, ranked by Sharpe ratio; funds that hold the same thing are shown once. The last two columns show a portfolio that is 80% SGOV and 20% the other investment, rebalanced monthly.

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