Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
GDX vs IAU: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, GDX returned +19.0% to IAU's +2.7%, and IAU charges 0.25% to GDX's 0.51%.
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Net assets: $25.6bn on Oct 27, 2026 for VanEck Gold Miners ETF, and $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust.
Pair scorecard
IAU costs 0.26 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 16.3 points; IAU is 2.4 times larger.
| Measure | GDX | IAU |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +19.0% | +2.7% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its all-time high | 27.5%, high on Feb 27, 2026 | |
| Below its high | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold miners | Gold |
| Against its benchmark, 1 year | ahead by 5.6 pts | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.51% | 0.25% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $25.6bn | $60.3bn |
| Active share vs the S&P 500 | 100% | |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 12% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 60% | |
Risk and return
Jun 2, 2006 to Oct 23, 2026 · 1,064 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: GDX against ACWI, Apr 4, 2008 to Oct 23, 2026; IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026.
IAU returned more: +490.8% to +148.2%. IAU swung less: 17.4% to 38.4%. IAU fell less at its worst: −44.4% to −79.2%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | GDX | IAU | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +148.2% | +490.8% | IAU | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +4.5% | +9.1% | IAU | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +105.0% | +490.8% | IAU | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 38.4% | 17.4% | IAU | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 26.4% | 11.9% | IAU | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −79.2% | −44.4% | IAU | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 50.2% | 100.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 74.9% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.76 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.13 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.27 | 0.49 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.38 | 0.71 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.127 | 0.098 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.06 | 0.20 | IAU | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | ACWI | GLD | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +3.4% a year | +0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.41 | 0.67 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −13.0% to +19.9% | −0.2% to +0.4% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.04 | 0.18 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 36.4% | 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, 1,064 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
GDX and IAU on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
GDX and IAU do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. GDX follows Gold miners and IAU follows Gold.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 GDX returned +19.0% and IAU +2.7% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 16.3 points.
- Cost. GDX charges 0.51% of assets a year and IAU 0.25%, a gap of 0.26 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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GDX
By weight, 12% of GDX's portfolio is stocks that are also in the S&P 500; its active share against the S&P 500 is 100%. The top ten holdings are 60% of the fund across 59 positions, as published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 the fund returned +19.0% with distributions reinvested against +13.4% for its benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Index, so a holder was ahead by 5.6 pts. It sits 27.5% below its all-time high of Feb 27, 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
- Are GDX and IAU in the same category?
- GDX is a thematic ETF and IAU is a commodity ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, GDX or IAU?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GDX returned +19.0% and IAU +2.7%.
- Which is cheaper, GDX or IAU?
- IAU is cheaper, by 0.26 percentage points a year. That is about $26 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, GDX against IAU, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gdx-vs-iau
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). GDX against IAU. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gdx-vs-iau
[GDX against IAU (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gdx-vs-iau)
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