Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
AVUV vs IAU: Differences, Returns & Fees
AVUV is an actively managed equity fund and IAU a commodity fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, AVUV returned +25.1% against +2.7%.
askIQ about this page
askIQ about AVUV and IAU
Net assets: $32.1bn on Oct 27, 2026 for Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF, and $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust.
Pair scorecard
Both cost 0.25% a year; their one-year returns differ by 22.4 points; IAU is 1.9 times larger.
Points (pts) are percentage points.
| Measure | AVUV | IAU |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +25.1% | +2.7% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 4.4%, high on Aug 4, 2026 | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | No index, actively managed | Gold |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.25% | 0.25% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $32.1bn | $60.3bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 0% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 7.9% | |
Risk and return
Oct 4, 2019 to Oct 23, 2026 · 368 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: AVUV against IWN, Oct 4, 2019 to Oct 23, 2026; IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026.
AVUV returned more: +180.4% to +160.8%. IAU swung less: 17.0% to 27.5%. IAU fell less at its worst: −24.1% to −48.5%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | AVUV | IAU | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +180.4% | +160.8% | AVUV | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +15.7% | +14.5% | AVUV (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +150.6% | +160.8% | IAU (slight) | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 27.5% | 17.0% | IAU | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 18.9% | 11.3% | IAU | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −48.5% | −24.1% | IAU | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 111.7% | 100.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.1% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.04 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.95 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.56 | 0.71 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.82 | 1.07 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.148 | 0.098 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.32 | 0.60 | IAU | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | IWN | GLD | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +4.3% a year | +0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 1.91 | 0.67 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.1% to +8.7% | −0.2% to +0.4% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.79 | 0.18 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 6.1% | 0.7% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 368 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
AVUV and IAU on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
AVUV and IAU do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. AVUV follows No index, actively managed and IAU follows Gold.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 AVUV returned +25.1% and IAU +2.7% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 22.4 points.
- Cost (similar). AVUV charges 0.25% of assets a year and IAU 0.25%.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
The two-page PDF for this pair is coming. Save the comparison to follow its changes. Free. It needs an email sign-in, once.
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +25.1% with distributions reinvested, against +21.1% for its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Value.
AVUV is actively managed and tracks no index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.25% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 791 positions, with the top ten at 7.9%. It sat 4.4% below its high of Aug 4, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Its expense ratio is 0.25% a year, for the three months to Jun 30, 2026, as its 10-Q states.
IAU holds gold. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +2.7% with distributions reinvested, against +2.5% for its benchmark, the price of gold. It sat 24.6% below its high of Jan 29, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.
Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown
ETFIQ, AVUV against IAU, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/avuv-vs-iau
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). AVUV against IAU. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/avuv-vs-iau
[AVUV against IAU (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/avuv-vs-iau)
Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.