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

In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +19.5% and QAI returned +9.1%, so GLD returned more.

Which is cheaper, GLD or QAI?

GLD charges 0.40% a year and QAI charges 0.81%, so GLD is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Are GLD and QAI the same kind of fund?

No. GLD is a commodity ETF and QAI is an alternatives 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

GLD vs QAI: how they differ

Over the year GLD returned more, +19.5% to QAI's +9.1%, and GLD charges 0.40% to QAI's 0.81%.

SPDR Gold Shares and NYLIM Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF.

GLD and QAI on the fields both publish, as of Sep 19, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
	GLD SPDR Gold Shares	QAI NYLIM Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF
Where it sits	Core fund	Alternatives ETF
Issuer	State Street	New York Life Investments
What it is	Holds gold	Multi-strategy
Total return, 1 year	+19.5%	+9.1%
S&P 500 over the same days	+16.6%	+16.6%
Gap to the S&P 500	+3.0 pts	−7.5 pts
Expense ratio	0.40%	0.81%
Net assets	$147.8bn	$968m

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.

QAI in plain words

QAI is a multi-strategy 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 +0.85 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 QAI fell 0.42% on average, a down-week capture of 34.0%. Over the same 52 weeks QAI returned +9.0% and a Treasury bill fund +3.6%, so it finished 5.4 percentage points ahead of cash.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, GLD or QAI?: In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +19.5% and QAI returned +9.1%, so GLD returned more.
Which is cheaper, GLD or QAI?: GLD charges 0.40% a year and QAI charges 0.81%, so GLD is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Are GLD and QAI the same kind of fund?: No. GLD is a commodity ETF and QAI is an alternatives 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.

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

A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources