Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
BND vs GLD: Differences, Returns & Fees
BND is a bond index fund and GLD a commodity fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, GLD returned +2.5% against −1.3%.
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Net assets: $161.4bn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF, and $135.8bn on Oct 27, 2026 for SPDR Gold Shares.
Pair scorecard
BND costs 0.37 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 3.8 points; BND is 1.1 times larger.
| Measure | BND | GLD |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | −1.3% | +2.5% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 3.5%, high on Aug 6, 2020 | 24.7%, high on Jan 29, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Index | Gold |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.03% | 0.40% |
| Net assets, as of Sep 30, 2026 | $161.4bn | $141.7bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
Risk and return
Apr 20, 2007 to Oct 23, 2026 · 1,018 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: BND against AGG, Apr 20, 2007 to Oct 23, 2026; GLD against IAU, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026.
GLD returned more: +433.6% to +75.5%. BND swung less: 5.0% to 17.1%. BND fell less at its worst: −18.4% to −44.7%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | BND | GLD | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +75.5% | +433.6% | GLD | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +2.9% | +8.9% | GLD | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | −5.4% | +433.6% | GLD | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 5.0% | 17.1% | BND | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 3.7% | 11.7% | BND | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −18.4% | −44.7% | BND | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 95.8% | 99.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 95.6% | 99.9% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.91 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.94 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.29 | 0.49 | GLD | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.39 | 0.73 | GLD | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.016 | 0.097 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.16 | 0.20 | GLD | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | AGG | IAU | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.2% a year | −0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.59 | −0.57 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.4% to +0.7% | −0.4% to +0.2% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.03 | −0.18 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 1.3% | 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, 1,018 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
BND and GLD on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
BND and GLD do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. BND follows Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Index and GLD follows Gold.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 BND returned −1.3% and GLD +2.5% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 3.8 points.
- Cost. BND charges 0.03% of assets a year and GLD 0.40%, a gap of 0.37 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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BND
BND tracks an index of US aggregate bonds. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned −1.3% with distributions reinvested, against −1.4% for its benchmark, the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Index, measured by the closely related Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.03% a year. It sat 3.5% below its high of Aug 6, 2020 on Oct 28, 2026.
Its expense ratio is 0.40% a year, for the three months to Jun 30, 2026, as its 10-Q states.
GLD holds gold. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +2.5% with distributions reinvested, against +2.7% for its benchmark, the price of gold. It sat 24.7% below its high of Jan 29, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, BND or GLD?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, BND returned −1.3% and GLD +2.5%.
- Which is cheaper, BND or GLD?
- BND is cheaper, by 0.37 percentage points a year. That is about $37 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, BND against GLD, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/bnd-vs-gld
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