LQD: iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

What does LQD hold?#

This fund holds bonds that companies sell to borrow money, in US dollars. These companies have credit ratings that count as investment grade, which means they are seen as more likely to pay back. The fund pays out interest income each month, and its price falls when interest rates rise.

It tracks the iBoxx USD Liquid Investment Grade Index. It had 3,171 holdings as of October 15, 2026, according to iShares (BlackRock).

What is the LQD expense ratio?#

LQD charges 0.14% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.14% fee comes to about $14 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 LQD done since 2002?#

From July 2002 to October 2026, LQD returned about 4.4% a year. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $28,545 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.

LQD returns by year#

What was LQD’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. LQD’s worst fall was −24.9%, from September 22, 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 LQD?#

13 classic strategies hold LQD at least some of the time. Each is a set of written rules you can open, test and copy.

• Bold Asset Allocation (BAA), by Wouter Keller, 2022
• Vigilant Asset Allocation (VAA), by Wouter Keller and JW Keuning, 2017
• Defensive Asset Allocation (DAA), by Wouter Keller and JW Keuning, 2018
• Protective Asset Allocation (PAA), by Wouter Keller and JW Keuning, 2016
• Composite Dual Momentum, by Gary Antonacci, 2012
• Vigilant Asset Allocation G12 (VAA-G12), by Wouter Keller and JW Keuning, 2017
• Bold Asset Allocation G4 (BAA aggressive), by Wouter Keller, 2022
• GTAA 13: Faber’s 13-asset tactical allocation, by Mebane Faber, 2013
• GTAA Aggressive 3 (Faber GTAA AGG3), by Mebane Faber, 2013
• GTAA Aggressive 6 (Faber GTAA AGG6), by Mebane Faber, 2013
• Trinity Portfolio (Meb Faber), by Mebane Faber, 2016
• Papa Bear Portfolio (Muscular Portfolios), by Brian Livingston, 2018
• Bond UI1 (Paul Novell’s unemployment bond strategy), by Paul Novell, 2019

How does LQD compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for LQD:

• VCIT: Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF, 0.03% a year
• AGG: iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF, 0.03% a year
• BND: Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF, 0.03% a year
• SCHZ: Schwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF, 0.03% a year

See all 8 LQD alternatives, compared on the same dates as LQD.

Test LQD 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 LQD, 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 LQD. 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.