What Is TLT? iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

TLT is iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF, an ETF that tracks ICE US Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index at a 0.15% expense ratio. Holds US Treasury bonds maturing in 20 years or more, so its price swings sharply as long-term interest rates move: up when yields fall, down when they rise. It is used as a duration and recession hedge rather than a stable cash holding. Fee is 0.15%.

TLT is issued by iShares and tracks ICE US Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index, so a single ticker gives you the whole basket of underlying holdings weighted by the index's methodology rather than by any active stock-picking.

TLT does not hold a basket of individual stocks. It gets its exposure synthetically, through derivatives such as swaps and futures rather than by owning the underlying shares, so there is no conventional top-10 equity holdings list. See the description above for what TLT actually tracks and how that exposure is built.

TLT gives you ICE US Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index exposure in one ticker at a 0.15% expense ratio. Most investors use it as a core holding and layer more concentrated thematic baskets on top.

Whether TLT is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, concentration, and what would have to be true for it to outperform from here in is TLT a buy?

TLT yields ~4.55% as of mid-2026, paid by passing through the dividends of its underlying holdings. For the payout schedule, history, and how the distributions are taxed, see TLT dividend: yield and schedule.

TLT holds only long-dated (20+ year) Treasuries, so it is far more sensitive to interest rates than BND, which spreads across the whole investment-grade market at shorter average maturity. TLT is a concentrated rate and recession bet; BND is a diversified, steadier core bond holding. Read the full side-by-side in TLT vs BND.