If you've been holding long-term bonds over the past few years, you probably feel like you've been in a boxing match with Mike Tyson. And you're losing.

Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist at Creative Planning, summed it up bluntly on Monday: rising yields have absolutely hammered the bond market, especially the long-duration ETFs that are most sensitive to interest rate moves. The 30-year Treasury yield just topped 5% for the first time since July 2007, and that's been a wrecking ball for funds like the PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index ETF (ZROZ), iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), Vanguard Long-Term Treasury ETF (VGLT), and Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF (EDV).

"The 30-Year Treasury yield has moved from an all-time low of 0.8% in March 2020 to over 5% today," Bilello said in a post on X. "Long duration + Rising interest rates = Pain." And he's not exaggerating. ZROZ, which holds zero-coupon bonds with maturities of 25 years or more, has dropped over 60% from its peak in March 2020. TLT is down about 44% from its high. VGLT and EDV have each lost roughly 67% from their March 2020 peaks.

The math is simple: when bond yields go up, bond prices go down. And the longer the duration, the more sensitive the price. So when the 30-year yield goes from 0.8% to over 5%, you get carnage. The 10-year yield has climbed from 0.32% to 4.51%, and the 2-year from 0.23% to 4.07% over the same period. That's a lot of pain for bondholders.

Let's look at each ETF in a bit more detail.

PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index ETF (ZROZ) tracks the BofA Merrill Lynch Long Treasury Principal STRIPS Index. It has $1.4 billion in assets under management (AUM) and trades an average of 510,000 shares daily. The expense ratio is 0.15%. Year-to-date, ZROZ is down 4.5%. According to market data, its momentum score is weak, in the 18th percentile, with a poor price trend across all time frames.

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) follows the ICE US Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index and charges 0.15% in fees. It's one of the most popular bond ETFs out there, with $42.8 billion in AUM and average daily volume of nearly 26 million shares. TLT is down 2.8% year-to-date and about 44% from its March 2020 peak. Its momentum score sits in the 20th percentile, also weak across short, medium, and long terms.

Vanguard Long-Term Treasury ETF (VGLT) tracks the Bloomberg US Long Treasury Bond Index. It has $10 billion in AUM, an expense ratio of just 0.03%, and trades about 2 million shares daily. VGLT has lost 3% so far this year and is down roughly 67% from its March 2020 high. Its momentum score is in the 22nd percentile.

Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF (EDV) follows the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury STRIPS 20–30 Year Equal Par Bond Index. It charges 0.05% in fees, has $3.6 billion in AUM, and trades nearly 2 million shares per day. EDV is down 3.7% year-to-date and about 67% from its March 2020 peak. Its momentum score is in the 19th percentile.

So, yeah, it's been rough. But here's the interesting part: despite all the pain, investors are still pouring money into bond ETFs. Fixed-income ETFs have attracted $156.19 billion in inflows so far this year, up from $98.19 billion during the same period last year. That's a lot of cash, even with the Federal Reserve keeping rates higher for longer and yields staying elevated.

Why? Because many investors are betting that yields will eventually come back down, and they want to lock in these higher rates before they disappear. It's a classic "buy the dip" mentality, but for bonds. Whether that bet pays off depends on where inflation and the Fed go from here. But for now, the pain is real, and Bilello's warning is worth heeding: long duration plus rising rates equals pain.