Which is cheaper, BGLD or IAU?

BGLD charges 0.91% a year and IAU charges 0.25%, so IAU is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Are BGLD and IAU the same kind of fund?

No. BGLD is a buffer ETF and IAU is an index ETF, so they are built for different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and what each actually holds.

Data as of Sep 12, 2026. Both funds on the fields they both publish, from the same sources.

ETFIQetfiq.com · independent ETF data

BGLD vs IAU: how they differ

BGLD and IAU are measured over different days, and IAU charges 0.25% against 0.91%.

FT Vest Gold Strategy Quarterly Buffer ETF and iShares Gold Trust.

BGLD and IAU on the fields both publish, as of Sep 12, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
	BGLD FT Vest Gold Strategy Quarterly Buffer ETF	IAU iShares Gold Trust
Where it sits	Buffer ETF	Core index fund
Issuer	First Trust	iShares
What it is	Defined outcome, 5% to 15% on GLD	Gold
Total return, 1 year	not published	+19.2%
S&P 500 over the same days	not published	+17.5%
Gap to the S&P 500	not available	+1.7 pts
Expense ratio	0.91%	0.25%

BGLD in plain words

From its price on Sep 12, 2026, the fund can gain about 10.9% more before it reaches its cap. The fund's price can fall 4.0% from here before the buffer starts absorbing losses, by the issuer's figure. In index terms, GLD can fall 2.7% from today's level to the point where the buffer begins. Protection left, in index points: 10.0% of the 10.0% buffer still sits below today's GLD level. 80 days remained on Sep 12, 2026. On Nov 30, 2026 the period ends and a new cap is set.

IAU in plain words

IAU is a commodity fund tracking the Gold. Over the year to Sep 11, 2026 it returned +19.2% with distributions reinvested, against +17.5% for the S&P 500 and +23.0% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.25% a year. It sat 19.6% below its high of Jan 29, 2026 on Sep 11, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which is cheaper, BGLD or IAU?: BGLD charges 0.91% a year and IAU charges 0.25%, so IAU is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Are BGLD and IAU the same kind of fund?: No. BGLD is a buffer ETF and IAU is an index ETF, so they are built for different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and what each actually holds.

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Where these figures came from

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure. It is not affiliated with any issuer, and a link is not an endorsement.

BGLD against IAU, ETFIQ, data as of Sep 12, 2026. Every figure is arithmetic on a named public source; the method is at etfiq.com/methodology. A comparison is not a recommendation.

Cite this page. ETFIQ, BGLD against IAU, data as of Sep 12, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/BGLD-IAU Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.

A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources