Financial Pros Favorite Precious Metals ETFs Revealed

The Federal Reserve isn’t the only one trying to fight inflation.

Financial pros sought out the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) more than any other precious metal ETF. And it’s not hard to understand why.

Gold is more popular than other precious metals. And the GLD sees more volume in total shares traded and options than any other gold ETF.

But there’s a nuance to the GLD most people don’t realize. One you definitely should be aware of.

Key Facts About GLD

• Net assets: $57.44 billion
• 12-month trailing yield: N/A
• Inception: November 18, 2004
• Expense ratio: 0.40%
• Number of holdings: N/A

The GLD ETF isn’t like most other ETFs. Instead of owning stocks, it owns physical gold stored in a vault.

So, when you trade a share of the GLD, you’re trading physical gold.

And no, you can’t request physical gold from the values (you can do that from futures if you want).

Now, there is a very tiny disparity between the market value of the ETF and the gold itself.

In theory, if investors sold ALL the shares of GLD, the ETF wouldn’t be able to pay out 100% of the value.

The thing is, if something like that is going to happen, chances are there are WAY worse problems in the world you’ll need to worry about.

Performance

Because the ETF owns physical gold, it trades very close to the spot price of gold, unlike other commodity ETFs like the USO and oil.

And in case you didn’t know, gold has done incredibly well over the last year…heck the last five years.

Source: SSGA

Competition

We brought in several other precious metal ETFs that cover silver, platinum, and some other gold options.

• iShares Silver Trust (SLV): Like the GLD, the SLV holds silver in a vault that the shares of the SLV trade against.
• iShares Gold Trust (IAU): IAU is the iShares version of the GLD.Other than a different ticker and lower volume, it’s pretty much the same.
• Aberdeen Standard Platinum Shares ETF (PPLT): The PPLT is the only platinum ETF on our list. But looking at platinum’s performance, it may not be one you want to own.
• Perth Mint Physical Gold ETF (AAAU): This is a newer ETF with a markedly lower expense ratio and decent volume.

It’s worth pointing out that the 5-year return for the AAAU is a bit skewed because it’s newer. If you look at a comparison of three years or less, the returns are identical, save for the expense ratio differences.

Our Opinion 8/10 

The GLD is one of the BEST gold ETFs out there. It’s the most popular with tons of liquidity.

However, we were impressed with the lower expense ratio of the AAAU and would rate it as the top precious metal and gold ETF.

It might seem like a small difference. But over time, those fees add up.