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The ''' Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index''' (ticker: LBUSTRUU), formerly known as the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index and the Barclays US Aggregate Index, was created in 1986 with backdated history going back to 1976. The index has been maintained by Bloomberg L.P. since August 24th 2016. <ref> {{Cite web|title=Bloomberg Completes Acquisition of Barclays Risk Analytics and Index Solutions Business |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/bloomberg-acquisition-barclays-brais/|publisher=Bloomberg|date=August 24, 2016}}</ref>The index is a predominant index benchmark for US bond investors, and is a benchmark index for many US index funds. 

==Overview==
The Index is a composite of four major subindices: US Government Index; US Credit Index; US Mortgage Backed Securities Index (1986); and (beginning in 1992) US Asset Backed Securities Index. The index holds investment quality bonds. The ratings are based on S&P, Moody, and Fitch bond ratings. Table 3 in the appendix provides credit quality breakdowns for the index from 2005-2009.  The index does not include [[High yield bonds|high yield bonds]], [[Municipal bonds |municipal bonds]], [[Treasury Inflation Protected Securities| inflation-indexed bonds]], or [[Developed market bonds |foreign currency bonds]]. In 2010, the index held more than 8,200 bond issues. <ref> [https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/fact-sheet/agg-ishares-core-u-s-aggregate-bond-etf-fund-fact-sheet-en-us.pdf Ishares Factsheet] </ref> The time line for the addition and subtraction of asset classes, as well as changes in the minimum issue size and credit quality standards for the index are included in the time line sidebar.

{{Quote
|quote     ='''Milestones in the Evolution of the Bloomberg Barclays  U.S. Aggregate Index'''
*'''1/73''' Inception date for Government/Corporate Index.
*'''1/86''' Introduction date for the Mortgage-Backed, Yankee, and Aggregate Indices, with returns and statistics calculated back to 12/31/75.
*'''8/88''' Liquidity constraint increased from $1 million to $25 million for corporate issues. Yankee Index absorbed into the Government/Corporate Index.
*'''1/89''' Published durations changed from Macaulay duration to maturity to duration to worst. Published yields changed from yield to maturity to yield to worst.
*'''1/90''' Liquidity constraint increased from $25 million to $100 million for government issues. Yankee sector absorbed into the Corporate Index. Title XI issues dropped from the Government Index. Asset-backed bullet issues added to the finance sector.
*'''1/92''' Asset-Backed Securities Index added to Aggregate Index. Balloon issues added to MBS Index. Liquidity constraint increased from $25 million to $50 million for nongovernment issues. Mobile homes dropped from MBS Index.
*'''1/94''' Liquidity constraint increased from $50 million to $100 million for all issues.
*'''1/95''' GPMs dropped from the MBS Index. Average coupons par-weighted instead of market-weighted.
*'''12/97''' Added stranded cost securities to the Asset-Backed Securities Index.
*'''12/98''' Manufactured housing securities added to the ABS Index. Quarter-coupons dropped from MBS Index. All World Bank Issues moved to supranational component of Corporate Index.
*'''7/99''' Liquidity constraint raised to $150 million from $100 million. ERISA-eligible CMBS added to the Aggregate Index.
*'''7/00''' Renamed Corporate Index to Credit. Absorbed all Yankee Corporates into their respective industry classifications. Changed the liquidity constraint on the ABS Index—old constraint: $150 million per tranche; new constraint: deal must be $500 million, tranche must be $25 million. ERISA-eligible B pieces to be included also. 
*'''10/03''' Liquidity constraint raised to USD200mn from USD150mn. Started using the most conservative rating of Moody’s and S&P to determine index eligibility instead of Moody’s only for split-rated securities.
*'''7/04''' Liquidity constraint raised to USD250mn/USD25mn CMBS tranche size from USD 200mn.
*'''7/05''' Fitch ratings added to Moody’s and S&P to determine index eligibility and classification.
*'''4/07''' Agency Hybrid Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) securities added to the index, but not eligible for the Global Aggregate.
*'''1/08''' U.S. MBS Fixed-Rate Balloons and U.S. ABS Manufactured Housing removed.
*'''11/08''' Index rebranded as Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index.
*'''10/09'''  U.S. ABS Home Equity Loans removed.
*'''01/11''' Covered bonds become eligible, A1A tranches are removed from the CMBS portion of the index.
*'''05/12''' Issuer eligibility for fixed-rate ABS no longer based on a predefined list of “eligible” issuers.
*'''04/13''' Loan participation notes (LPNs) eligible for the index.
*'''04/14''' Minimum liquidity for US MBS Index constituents raised from USD250mn to USD1bn.
*'''07/14''' US Agency CMBS added to the index.
|source    = -- ''[{{{URL|http://quantlabs.net/academy/download/free_quant_instituitional_books_/%5BLehman%20Brothers%5D%20A%20Guide%20to%20the%20Lehman%20Global%20Family%20of%20Fixed%20Income%20Indices.pdf}}} Lehman Brothers: a Guide to the Lehman Global Family of Fixed Income Indices] Figure 7.; [https://index.barcap.com/indices/action/indexDownload?id=-cd39a682e66c4320a4f351cae1cdbb9&pageId=9 US Aggregate Index Factsheet]''
}}

The current bond asset classes that compose the index: <ref> Richard A. Ferri, ''All About Index Funds''; p. 182. ISBN 0-07-148492-2 </ref>
#Government
##[[Treasury bonds |Treasury bills, notes, and bonds]]
##[[Government agency bonds|Agency bonds]]
#[[Corporate bonds|Credit]]
##Industrial
##Finance
##Utility
##Yankee Bonds
#[[Mortgage-backed securities|Mortgage Backed]]
##[[GNMA]]
##FNMA
##FHLMC
#[[Asset-backed securities|Asset backed ]]
##Credit card receivables
##Auto Loans
##Home equity loans

The relative weighting of asset classes within the index changes over time as new asset classes are added to the index, as issuance of bonds grows and ebbs, and as market security values fluctuate. The following table shows the index sector allocation over the period 1973-2013. A breakdown of mortgage backed securities (GNMA, FHLMC, FNMA) in the index from 1978-2001 is included in the notes. 

In June 2009, as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, Barclay's announced the creation of the US Aggregate Float Adjusted Index that excludes Treasuries, agencies and MBS held in Federal Reserve accounts.<ref> [http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/barclays-capital-announces-the-creation-of-the-us-aggregate-float-adjusted-index-1214078.htm Barclays press release, July 30, 2009] </ref>

<center>
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"  width=700px
|+ Table. Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index Sector Allocation<br>Trailing 5 years<ref>[http://www.scribd.com/doc/19601818/Lehman-Brothers-a-Guide-to-the-Lehman-Global-Family-of-Fixed-Income-Indices Lehman Brothers: a Guide to the Lehman Global Family of Fixed Income Indices] 1973-2001</ref>  <ref>[https://ecommerce.barcap.com/indices/index.dxml?pageId=9 Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Factsheet] 2005-2009, 2014-2016; [https://www.bbhub.io/indices/sites/2/2016/08/2017-02-08-Factsheet-US-Aggregate.pdf. Bloomberg Barclays U.S Aggregate Factsheet], 2017. </ref> 
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Government'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Corporate'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Mortgage Backed''' 
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Asset Backed'''
|-
|1973 || 49.0% || 51.0% || 0.0% ||  0.0%
|-
|1983 || 59.0% || 24.0% || 17.0% || 0.0%
|-
|1993 || 53.0% || 17.0% || 28.0% ||  2.0%
|-
|1998 || 46.0% || 22.0% || 31.0% || 1.0%
|-
|1999 || 42.0% || 21.0% || 34.0% ||  2.0%
|-
|2000 || 38.0% || 24.0% || 35.0% ||  4.0%
|-
|2001 || 34.0% || 27.0% || 35.0% || 4.0%
|-
|2005 || 40.2% || 19.5% || 34.9% ||  5.3%
|-
|2006 || 39.4% || 19.4% || 35.1% ||  6.1%
|-
|2007 || 35.4% || 19.6% || 38.6% ||  6.5%
|-
|2008 || 38.6% || 17.7% || 39.6% ||  4.1%
|-
|2009 || 40.8% || 18.8% || 36.8% || 3.6%
|-
|2010 || 45.8% || 18.8% || 32.7% || 2.8%
|-
|2011 || 46.0% || 19.9% || 34.1% || -
|-
|2012 || 46.7% || 21.5% || 31.8% || -
|-
|2013 || 45.7% || 22.3% || 32.0% || -
|-
| 2014 || 45.3%|| 23.3%||  31.4% ||-
|-
| 2015 || 45.8% || 24.2%|| 31.0%|| -
|-
| 2016 || 44.7% || 25.4%|| 30.0%||-
|-
| 2017 || 44.0% || 25.8%|| 30.3%||-
|}
</center>
The modified adjusted [[duration]] of the U.S. Aggregate index is 5.51 years (as of 30-Aug-2016).<ref>[https://index.barcap.com/Benchmark_Indices/Aggregate/Bond_Indices Barclays - Index Products], viewed August 31, 2016.</ref>

All bonds have a final maturity of at least one year. Subindices based on ''intermediate'' maturity bands range from 1 to 9.999 years; ''long'' maturity bands include maturity bands of 10 years or greater.<ref>[https://index.barcap.com/indices/action/indexDownload?id=-4dc127143d5fed8061d77026cd51ffdd US Aggregate Index Fact Sheet], viewed August 31, 2016.</ref>

==Credit quality==
The table below shows the annual distribution of credit quality holdings in the index.<ref group="note"> Breakdown of mortgage backed securities in the index.
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"  width=700px
|+ Table. Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index Mortgage Backed Securities 2010 forward
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''GNMA'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''FHLMC'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''FNMA''' 
|-
|2013 || 26.7%|| 26.9% || 40.6% 
|-
|2012 || 25.7% || 22.9% ||46.5% 
|-
|2011 || 23.5% || 30.3% ||46.2% 
|-
|2010 || 20.4% || 32.2% || 47.4% 
|}
from [https://ecommerce.barcap.com/indices/Home/Guides_and_Factsheets Barclays bond index guides]

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"  width=700px
|+ Table. Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index Mortgage Backed Securities 1978 - 2001  
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''GNMA'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''FHLMC'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''FNMA''' 
|-
|1978 || 89%|| 11% || 0% 
|-
|1983 || 69% || 22% || 9% 
|-
|1988 || 50% || 30% || 20% 
|-
|1993 || 32% || 33% || 35% 
|-
|1998 || 26% || 34% || 40% 
|-
|1999 || 25% || 34% || 41% 
|-
|2000 || 24% || 34% || 42% 
|-
|2001 || 21% || 35% || 44% 
|}
from [http://www.scribd.com/doc/19601818/Lehman-Brothers-a-Guide-to-the-Lehman-Global-Family-of-Fixed-Income-Indices Lehman Brothers: a Guide to the Lehman Global Family of Fixed Income Indices] 1973-2001</ref> All four designations (AAA to Baa} are considered investment quality, with specific distinctions:
*Aaa rating: highest quality
*Aa rating: high quality
*A rating: strong
*Baa rating: medium grade

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"  width=700px
|+ Table. Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index Credit Quality<br>Trailing 5 years<ref>[https://ecommerce.barcap.com/indices/index.dxml?pageId=9 Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Factsheet] 2005-2009, [https://ecommerce.barcap.com/indices/Home/Guides_and_Factsheets US Aggregate Index Factsheet], 2004-2014, [https://index.barcap.com/index.dxml?pageId=9 Aggregate/Broad Market Indices] (US Aggregate Index), 2015-2016; [https://www.bbhub.io/indices/sites/2/2016/08/2017-02-08-Factsheet-US-Aggregate.pdf. Bloomberg Barclays U.S Aggregate Factsheet], 2017. </ref> 
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Aaa'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Aa'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''A''' 
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Baa'''
|-
|2005 || 78.6% || 4.7% || 8.8% || 7.8%
|-
|2006 || 78.9% || 5.0% || 8.7% || 7.5%
|-
|2007 || 79.2% || 5.4% || 8.2% || 7.2%
|-
|2008 || 80.9% || 3.1% || 9.3% || 6.7%
|-
|2009 || 78.1% || 4.1% || 9.7% || 8.1%
|-
|2010 || 77.7% || 4.5% || 9.7% || 8.1%
|-
|2011 || 75.1% || 5.1% ||10.7% || 9.1% 
|-
|2012 || 73.1% || 5.1% || 11.0%|| 10.8%
|-
|2013 || 72.4%|| 4.9% || 11.1%|| 11.6%
|-
| 2014 || 71.8% || 4.6% || 11.8% || 11.9%
|-
| 2015 || 71.5% || 4.4% || 11.4% || 12.7%
|-
| 2016 || 70.8% || 4.4% || 11.3% || 13.5%
|-
| 2017 || 70.9% || 4.8% || 10.6% || 13.8%
|}

==Index returns==

The following expandable table provides return data for the index. The annual returns of the index from 1976 to date have ranged between -2.92% in 1994 to 32.60% in 1982.  

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible sortable mw-collapsed" border="1" style="text-align:center"  width=250px
|+ Table.Annual Returns <ref> '''Data Sources''':[https://ecommerce.barcap.com/indices/index.dxml?pageId=9 Barclays Capital US Aggregate Bond Index Factsheet 1976-1983]; [http://www.pacadvisory.com/new/pacadvisory/Callan_Chart.pdf Callan Chart 1984-2004]; [https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239458/ishares-core-total-us-bond-market-etf Ishares Performance 2004-2010];  [https://ecommerce.barcap.com/indices/Home/Guides_and_Factsheets US Aggregate Index Factsheet 2004-2013]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c72c7eGVqpujiVzrF9qG9cW7Did1LGyDRP0PLLLcUVg/pubhtml|title=Source of chart}} google drive</ref>
! scope="col" |'''Year'''
! scope="col"|'''Total Return'''
|-
| 1976||15.60%
|-
| 1977||3.00%
|-
| 1978||1.40%
|-
| 1979||1.90%
|-
| 1980||2.70%
|-
| 1981||6.30%
|-
| 1982||32.60%
|-
| 1983||8.40%
|-
| 1984||15.15%
|-
| 1985||22.11%
|-
| 1986||15.26%
|-
| 1987||2.76%
|-
| 1988||7.89%
|-
| 1989||14.53%
|-
| 1990||8.96%
|-
| 1991||16.00%
|-
| 1992||7.40%
|-
| 1993||9.75%
|-
| 1994||-2.92%
|-
| 1995||18.47%
|-
| 1996||3.63%
|-
| 1997||9.65%
|-
| 1998||8.69%
|-
| 1999||-0.82%
|-
| 2000||11.63%
|-
| 2001||8.44%
|-
| 2002||10.26%
|-
| 2003||4.10%
|-
| 2004||4.34%
|-
| 2005||2.43%
|-
| 2006||4.33%
|-
| 2007||6.97%
|-
| 2008||5.24%
|-
| 2009||5.93%
|-
| 2010||6.54%
|-
| 2011||7.84%
|-
| 2012||4.21%
|-
| 2013||-2.02%
|-
| 2014|| 5.97%
|-
| 2015|| 0.55%
|-
|2016|| 2.65%
|-
|2017|| 3.54%
|}
<html>
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c72c7eGVqpujiVzrF9qG9cW7Did1LGyDRP0PLLLcUVg/pubhtml?widget=true&amp;headers=false" width="600" height="450"></iframe>
</html>

==Index funds==
The  Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index was formulated as a market benchmark and contains thousands of illiquid bonds. Index fund managers therefore use sampling strategies when attempting to construct index funds tracking the index. Bond holdings range from approximately 800 to 1600 bonds for  SPDR and Ishares  ETFs; and from approximately 930 bonds (TRowePrice) to 5200 bonds (Vanguard) for bond index mutual funds. The Vanguard Bond Market ETF is a share class of the Vanguard bond market index fund.  

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Index funds tracking Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index
|-
! Fund !! Link !! ETF!! Link
|-
|  Dreyfus Bond Market Index Fund ||  {{MStarFundLink|DBMIX}} ||  Ishares Barclays Aggregate Bond ETF||  {{MStarFundLink|AGG}}
|-
| T Rowe Price US Bond Index Fund ||  {{MStarFundLink|PBDIX}} ||SPDR Barclays Aggregate Bond ETFE || {{MStarFundLink|BNDS}}
|-
| TIAA-CREF Bond Index ||  {{MStarFundLink|TRILX}}|| Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF(Float-Adjusted ||  {{MStarFundLink|BND}}
|-
| Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund](Float-Adjusted)|| {{MStarFundLink|VBTLX}}|| ||
|}


==Notes==
<references group="note"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}} 

==External links==
*[https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/product/indices/bloomberg-barclays-indices-fact-sheets-publications/ Bloomberg Barclays Index Factsheets]

[[Category:Bonds]]
[[Category:Indexing]]