# ETF Hidden Costs: Full Cost to Own vs the Fee

> SPLB leads ETFs whose full cost to own is far above the fee at 4.9× (full cost ÷ fee), as of Oct 22, 2026. 8 funds from ETFIQ’s own published figures.

Data as of Oct 22, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.

As of Oct 22, 2026 . Rebuilt every trading night.

## ETFs whose full cost to own is far above the fee

As of Oct 22, 2026, SPLB’s full cost to own for a year is 0.20%, 4.9 times its fee. See 8 funds ranked by full cost to own for a year as a multiple of the fee, largest first. Updated Oct 22, 2026.

| # | Ticker | Fund | Full cost ÷ fee | Score | Tier | Cost to trade | At $10,000 | Full cost to own · 1 yr | Fee | Flags | Net assets |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | SPLB | State Street SPDR Portfolio Long Term Corporate Bond ETF | 4.9× | 86 | Trades like a giant | 0.025% | $2.50 | 0.20% | 0.04% | None | $1.2bn |
| 2 | SPHY | State Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF | 4.6× | 87 | Trades like a giant | 0.020% | $2.00 | 0.23% | 0.05% | None | $11.7bn |
| 3 | SPBO | State Street SPDR Portfolio Corporate Bond ETF | 4.3× | 90 | Trades like a giant | 0.020% | $2.00 | 0.13% | 0.03% | None | $2.1bn |
| 4 | MBND | State Street Nuveen Municipal Bond ETF | 3.5× | 43 | Thin | 0.23% | $24 | 1.40% | 0.40% | Price can drift from value, One dealer | $25m |
| 5 | SPMB | State Street SPDR Portfolio Mortgage Backed Bond ETF | 3.4× | 88 | Trades like a giant | 0.025% | $2.50 | 0.14% | 0.04% | None | $6.9bn |
| 6 | SPTL | State Street SPDR Portfolio Long Term Treasury ETF | 3.4× | 90 | Trades like a giant | 0.020% | $2.00 | 0.10% | 0.03% | None | $11.7bn |
| 7 | SPAB | State Street SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF | 3.3× | 86 | Trades like a giant | 0.020% | $2.00 | 0.10% | 0.03% | None | $10.5bn |
| 8 | ION | ProShares S&P Global Core Battery Metals ETF | 3.0× | 41 | Thin | 0.28% | $28 | 1.76% | 0.58% | Price can drift from value | $10m |

### Method

Every ETF whose full cost to own $10,000 for a year is three times its fee or more. Full cost is the fee, one round trip at the 30-day median spread, and the median premium or discount over 12 months. 8 of the 4,708 ETFs that may be listed qualify tonight. The IQ Liquidity Score measures trading conditions, not the fund, and no list here is a recommendation. The list sorts one published figure, with no scoring or weighting. Too new and closing funds are left out, as are funds no longer listed.

### Questions people ask

Why can an ETF cost more than its fee? Buying and selling cost the spread, and a price above or below NAV costs or pays the gap. For a short holding those can be larger than a year’s fee. Which ETF tops this list as of Oct 22, 2026? SPLB : its full cost to own $10,000 for a year is 0.20%, 4.9 times its fee of 0.04%.

### Where to next

### Where these figures came from

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement.

A ranking is not a recommendation or an opinion. ETFIQ is an independent publisher, not an adviser. Standards and sources

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Source: ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.
Cite: ETFIQ, ETFs whose full cost to own is far above the fee, ranked by full cost to own for a year as a multiple of the fee, largest first, data as of Oct 22, 2026. https://etfiq.com/rankings/trading-full-cost-far-above-the-fee
Licence: https://etfiq.com/license/ Figures ETFIQ computes are free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.
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