IGOV: iShares International Treasury Bond ETF

What does IGOV hold?#

This fund lends money to the governments of rich countries outside the US by owning their bonds. The bonds are in those countries’ own currencies, so changes in exchange rates affect its value. Bond prices also fall when interest rates rise.

It tracks the FTSE World Government Bond Index - Developed Markets Capped Select Index. It had 981 holdings as of October 15, 2026, according to iShares (BlackRock).

What is the IGOV expense ratio?#

IGOV charges 0.35% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.35% fee comes to about $35 a year.

You never get a bill for it. The fund takes the fee out of its own value a little each day.

How has IGOV done since 2009?#

From January 2009 to October 2026, IGOV returned about 0.0% a year. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $10,014 at the end, with every dividend reinvested.

Prices through October 16, 2026. Figures use daily closing prices adjusted for splits, with dividends reinvested. They do not include taxes or the cost of buying and selling. Past results do not tell you what will happen next.

IGOV returns by year#

What was IGOV’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. IGOV’s worst fall was −35.9%, from January 5, 2021 to October 20, 2022. By October 16, 2026 it had not yet climbed back to that high.

The chart shows how far below its last high the fund was on each day. Big drops are normal for some funds. They matter because selling during a drop locks in the loss.

Which Tactfolio strategies hold IGOV?#

One classic strategy holds IGOV at least some of the time. Each is a set of written rules you can open, test and copy.

• Paul Novell’s Tactical Bond Strategy, by Paul Novell, 2014

How does IGOV compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for IGOV:

• BNDX: Vanguard Total International Bond ETF, 0.07% a year
• BWX: State Street SPDR Bloomberg International Treasury Bond ETF, 0.35% a year
• EMB: iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF, 0.39% a year
• AGG: iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF, 0.03% a year

See all 7 IGOV alternatives, compared on the same dates as IGOV.

Test IGOV in your own rules#

Tactfolio is a platform where you build rules-based investing strategies, backtest them on decades of real prices, share them, and run them automatically in your own Alpaca account. Open the builder, add IGOV, and see how a rule such as “hold it only above its 200-day average” would have done. Strategies run on daily prices and hold US stocks and ETFs only.

The details#

Prices come from Tactfolio’s stored daily prices for IGOV. Each close is adjusted for splits, and dividends are reinvested on the day the fund pays them out. CAGR is the steady yearly return that turns the starting value into the ending value. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns.

Fund facts come from iShares (BlackRock). We checked them on October 16, 2026. Read what a backtest simulates and how to read drawdown and CAGR for more on these measures.