Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
GLD vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
GLD is a commodity fund and SPY an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SPY returned +13.6% against +2.5%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $135.8bn for SPDR Gold Shares and $814.8bn for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.31 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 11.1 points; SPY is 6.0 times larger.
| Measure | GLD | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.5% | +13.6% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.7%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | S&P 500 Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.40% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $135.8bn | $814.8bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 38.1% | |
Risk and return
Nov 26, 2004 to Oct 23, 2026 · 1,143 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: GLD against IAU, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
SPY returned more: +859.1% to +709.5%. GLD and SPY swung about the same: 17.3% and 17.4%. GLD fell less at its worst: −44.7% to −54.6%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | GLD | SPY | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +709.5% | +859.1% | SPY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +10.0% | +10.8% | SPY (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +709.5% | +542.1% | GLD | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 17.3% | 17.4% | Tie | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 11.9% | 12.3% | GLD (slight) | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.7% | −54.6% | GLD | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 99.4% | 99.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 99.9% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.53 | 0.57 | SPY (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.77 | 0.81 | SPY (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.097 | 0.133 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.22 | 0.20 | GLD | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | IAU | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.1% a year | −0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.57 | −0.51 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.4% to +0.2% | −0.3% to +0.1% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.18 | −0.15 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 0.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 1,143 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
GLD and SPY on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
GLD and SPY do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. GLD follows Gold and SPY follows S&P 500 Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 GLD returned +2.5% and SPY +13.6% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 11.1 points.
- Cost. GLD charges 0.40% of assets a year and SPY 0.09%, a gap of 0.31 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.
SPY
SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.6% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 504 positions, with the top ten at 38.1%.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, GLD or SPY?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +2.5% and SPY +13.6%.
- Which is cheaper, GLD or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.31 percentage points a year. That is about $31 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, GLD against SPY, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-spy
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