Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
EWT vs IAU: Differences, Returns & Fees
EWT is an equity index fund and IAU a commodity fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, EWT returned +69.9% against +2.7%.
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Net assets on Oct 28, 2026: $12.0bn for iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF and $60.1bn for iShares Gold Trust.
Pair scorecard
IAU costs 0.34 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 67.2 points; IAU is 5.0 times larger.
| Measure | EWT | IAU |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +69.9% | +2.7% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 7.7%, high on Oct 5, 2026 | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | MSCI Taiwan 25/50 Index | Gold |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.59% | 0.25% |
| Net assets | $12.0bn | $60.1bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 0% | |
| Holdings dated | Oct 27, 2026 | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 47.7% | |
Risk and return
Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026 · 1,133 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: EWT against EEM, Apr 25, 2003 to Oct 23, 2026; IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026.
EWT returned slightly more: +866.0% to +805.4%. IAU swung less: 17.4% to 22.8%. IAU fell less at its worst: −44.4% to −57.9%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | EWT | IAU | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +866.0% | +805.4% | EWT (slight) | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +11.0% | +10.6% | EWT (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +334.2% | +805.4% | IAU | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 22.8% | 17.4% | IAU | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 15.9% | 11.9% | IAU | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −57.9% | −44.4% | IAU | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 78.9% | 100.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 88.6% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.82 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.67 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.49 | 0.56 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.71 | 0.82 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.155 | 0.098 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.19 | 0.24 | IAU | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | EEM | GLD | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +4.5% a year | +0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 1.63 | 0.67 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.9% to +9.8% | −0.2% to +0.4% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.19 | 0.18 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 13.9% | 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, 1,133 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
EWT and IAU on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
EWT and IAU do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. EWT follows MSCI Taiwan 25/50 Index and IAU follows Gold.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 EWT returned +69.9% and IAU +2.7% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 67.2 points.
- Cost. EWT charges 0.59% of assets a year and IAU 0.25%, a gap of 0.34 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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EWT
EWT tracks the MSCI Taiwan. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +69.9% with distributions reinvested, against +16.3% for its benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.59% 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 79 positions, with the top ten at 47.7%. It sat 7.7% below its high of Oct 5, 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
- Which returned more over the last year, EWT or IAU?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, EWT returned +69.9% and IAU +2.7%.
- Which is cheaper, EWT or IAU?
- IAU is cheaper, by 0.34 percentage points a year. That is about $34 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, EWT against IAU, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ewt-vs-iau
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