Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
GLD vs SCHF: Differences, Returns & Fees
GLD is a commodity fund and SCHF an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SCHF returned +17.6% against +2.5%.
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Net assets: $135.8bn on Oct 27, 2026 for SPDR Gold Shares, and $69.7bn on Aug 31, 2026 for Schwab International Equity ETF.
Pair scorecard
SCHF costs 0.37 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 15.1 points.
| Measure | GLD | SCHF |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.5% | +17.6% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.7%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | 4.4%, high on Aug 25, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | FTSE Developed ex US Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.40% | 0.03% |
| Net assets, GLD as of Oct 27, 2026 and SCHF as of Aug 31, 2026 | $135.8bn | $69.7bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 0% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 13.8% | |
Risk and return
Nov 13, 2009 to Oct 23, 2026 · 884 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: GLD against IAU, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; SCHF against EFA, Nov 13, 2009 to Oct 23, 2026.
GLD returned slightly more: +234.1% to +222.5%. GLD swung slightly less: 15.8% to 17.1%. SCHF fell less at its worst: −33.8% to −44.7%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | GLD | SCHF | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +234.1% | +222.5% | GLD (slight) | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +7.4% | +7.1% | GLD (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +234.1% | +106.8% | GLD | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 15.8% | 17.1% | GLD (slight) | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.9% | 12.1% | GLD | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.7% | −33.8% | SCHF | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 99.4% | 99.2% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 99.9% | 99.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 0.99 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.99 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.43 | 0.40 | GLD (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.63 | 0.56 | GLD | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.097 | 0.069 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.16 | 0.21 | SCHF | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | IAU | EFA | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.1% a year | +0.5% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.57 | 1.02 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.4% to +0.2% | −0.4% to +1.4% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.18 | 0.20 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 1.9% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 884 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
GLD and SCHF on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
GLD and SCHF do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. GLD follows Gold and SCHF follows FTSE Developed ex US Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 GLD returned +2.5% and SCHF +17.6% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 15.1 points.
- Cost. GLD charges 0.40% of assets a year and SCHF 0.03%, a gap of 0.37 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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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.
SCHF
SCHF tracks an index of International Equity. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +17.6% with distributions reinvested, against +12.1% for its benchmark, the MSCI EAFE Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.03% a year. By its holdings filed for Aug 31, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 1,475 positions, with the top ten at 13.8%. It sat 4.4% below its high of Aug 25, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, GLD or SCHF?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +2.5% and SCHF +17.6%.
- Which is cheaper, GLD or SCHF?
- SCHF 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, GLD against SCHF, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-schf
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