Which returned more over the last year, AHLT or GLD?

In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, AHLT returned +32.0% and GLD returned +19.5%, so AHLT returned more.

Which is cheaper, AHLT or GLD?

AHLT charges 0.96% a year and GLD charges 0.40%, so GLD is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Are AHLT and GLD the same kind of fund?

No. AHLT is an alternatives ETF and GLD is a commodity 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 19, 2026.

ETFIQetfiq.com · independent ETF data

AHLT vs GLD: how they differ

Over the year AHLT returned more, +32.0% to GLD's +19.5%, and GLD charges 0.40% to AHLT's 0.96%.

AHL Trend ETF and SPDR Gold Shares.

AHLT and GLD on the fields both publish, as of Sep 19, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
	AHLT AHL Trend ETF	GLD SPDR Gold Shares
Where it sits	Alternatives ETF	Core fund
Issuer	American Beacon	State Street
What it is	Managed futures	Holds gold
Total return, 1 year	+32.0%	+19.5%
S&P 500 over the same days	+16.6%	+16.6%
Gap to the S&P 500	+15.4 pts	+3.0 pts
Expense ratio	0.96%	0.40%
Net assets	$50m	$147.8bn

AHLT in plain words

AHLT is a managed futures fund. ETFIQ measures what every alternatives fund is sold on: whether it moves differently from the stock market. Over the year to Sep 18, 2026, its weekly returns had a correlation of +0.40 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of +0.42, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.42% the same way. The S&P 500 fell in 22 of those 52 weeks, by 1.24% on average. In the same weeks AHLT fell 0.10% on average, a down-week capture of 8.0%. Over the same 52 weeks AHLT returned +31.6% and a Treasury bill fund +3.6%, so it finished 27.9 percentage points ahead of cash.

GLD in plain words

GLD holds gold. Over the year to Sep 18, 2026 it returned +19.5% with distributions reinvested, against +16.6% for the S&P 500 and +21.8% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.40% a year. It sat 19.1% below its high of Jan 29, 2026 on Sep 18, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, AHLT or GLD?: In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, AHLT returned +32.0% and GLD returned +19.5%, so AHLT returned more.
Which is cheaper, AHLT or GLD?: AHLT charges 0.96% a year and GLD charges 0.40%, so GLD is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Are AHLT and GLD the same kind of fund?: No. AHLT is an alternatives ETF and GLD is a commodity 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.

AHLT against GLD, ETFIQ, data as of Sep 19, 2026. Every figure is calculated from a named public source; the method is at etfiq.com/methodology. A comparison is not a recommendation.

Cite this page. ETFIQ, AHLT against GLD, data as of Sep 19, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ahlt-vs-gld Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.

A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources