BND sounds boring next to a star manager promising credit selection and tactical duration calls, yet it owns roughly 11,000 individual bonds across the investment-grade U.S. market for 0.03% a year. On a $300,000 sleeve, that is about $90 in annual fees versus $1,650 for PIMCO's flagship active ETF. The question is whether BND has actually earned that cost edge or simply collected it.
VTI tracks the CRSP US Total Market Index. ITOT, run by BlackRock's iShares, follows the S&P Total Market Index (TMI). Both reach across mega caps, mid caps, and small caps, so the top of each portfolio looks nearly identical. ITOT's published top holdings include NVIDIA at 6.69%, Apple at 5.88%, Microsoft at 4.34%, Amazon at 3.21%, and Alphabet's Class A shares at 2.64%.