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

In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +19.5% and QBUL returned +0.8%, so GLD returned more.

Which is cheaper, GLD or QBUL?

GLD charges 0.40% a year and QBUL charges 0.79%, so GLD is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Are GLD and QBUL the same kind of fund?

No. GLD is a commodity ETF and QBUL 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 QBUL: how they differ

Over the year GLD returned more, +19.5% to QBUL's +0.8%, and GLD charges 0.40% to QBUL's 0.79%.

SPDR Gold Shares and TrueShares Quarterly Bull Hedge ETF.

GLD and QBUL on the fields both publish, as of Sep 19, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
	GLD SPDR Gold Shares	QBUL TrueShares Quarterly Bull Hedge ETF
Where it sits	Core fund	Alternatives ETF
Issuer	State Street	TrueShares
What it is	Holds gold	Hedged equity
Total return, 1 year	+19.5%	+0.8%
S&P 500 over the same days	+16.6%	+16.6%
Gap to the S&P 500	+3.0 pts	−15.8 pts
Expense ratio	0.40%	0.79%
Net assets	$147.8bn	$17m

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.

QBUL in plain words

QBUL is a hedged equity 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 +0.86 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of +0.23, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.23% the same way. The S&P 500 fell in 22 of those 52 weeks, by 1.24% on average. In the same weeks QBUL fell 0.37% on average, a down-week capture of 29.5%. Over the same 52 weeks QBUL returned +0.6% and a Treasury bill fund +3.6%, so it finished 3.0 percentage points behind cash.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, GLD or QBUL?: In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +19.5% and QBUL returned +0.8%, so GLD returned more.
Which is cheaper, GLD or QBUL?: GLD charges 0.40% a year and QBUL charges 0.79%, so GLD is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Are GLD and QBUL the same kind of fund?: No. GLD is a commodity ETF and QBUL is an alternatives ETF, so they are built for different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and what each actually holds.

Other comparisons

Where to next

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

A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources