Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
GLD vs UGL: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, GLD returned +2.5% to UGL's −8.8%, and GLD charges 0.40% to UGL's 0.95%.
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Net assets: $135.8bn on Oct 27, 2026 for SPDR Gold Shares, and $672m on Oct 28, 2026 for ProShares Ultra Gold.
Pair scorecard
GLD costs 0.55 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 11.3 points; GLD is far larger, $135.8bn against $680m.
| Measure | GLD | UGL |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.5% | −8.8% |
| What its daily multiple gave, 3 months | −0.1% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | GLD 0.7% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | GLD 0.7% | |
| The multiple over the whole window | 2 times gives +1.4% | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.7%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | Gold |
| Against its daily multiple, 3 months | 1.1 points short | |
| Against the whole-window multiple | 2.6 points short | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.40% | 0.95% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $135.8bn | $680m |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
Risk and return
Dec 12, 2008 to Oct 23, 2026 · 932 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: GLD against IAU, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; UGL against GLD, Dec 12, 2008 to Oct 23, 2026.
UGL returned more: +508.2% to +353.7%. GLD swung less: 16.0% to 32.3%. GLD fell less at its worst: −44.7% to −75.0%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | GLD | UGL | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +353.7% | +508.2% | UGL | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +8.8% | +10.6% | UGL | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +353.7% | +508.2% | UGL | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 16.0% | 32.3% | GLD | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.9% | 21.9% | GLD | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.7% | −75.0% | GLD | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 99.4% | 320.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 99.9% | 144.7% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 2.01 | 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 | 0.52 | 0.43 | GLD | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.76 | 0.63 | GLD | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.097 | 0.069 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.20 | 0.14 | GLD | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | IAU | GLD | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.1% a year | −2.8% a year | GLD not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.57 | −5.48 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.4% to +0.2% | −3.8% to −1.8% | GLD includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.18 | 0.34 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 16.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 932 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
GLD and UGL on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
GLD and UGL do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 GLD returned +2.5% and UGL −8.8% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 11.3 points.
- Cost. GLD charges 0.40% of assets a year and UGL 0.95%, a gap of 0.55 points.
- Size. GLD has $135.8bn in net assets and UGL $680m (net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026); GLD is 199.7 times larger.
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.
Over the three months to Oct 28, 2026, UGL lost 1.2%, against −0.1% for twice GLD's daily moves. Of that 2.6, daily compounding is −1.5 points, which any 2 times fund would show over the same path, and the fund itself is −1.1 points against 2 times each day's move, compounded. GLD moved at 24% annualized over that window.
Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 2 times GLD's 0.7% implies +1.4%, which makes UGL look 2.6 points short. That is not the fund's objective, which is daily. UGL aims to return +2 times GLD's move each day, then resets. Over one day it does that. Over longer periods the daily results compound, so the total is not +2 times the period's move: it is lower after a fall and recovery, and can be higher in a steady run. The more it moves, the further the two numbers separate.
Questions people ask
- Are GLD and UGL in the same category?
- GLD is a commodity ETF and UGL is a leveraged ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, GLD or UGL?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +2.5% and UGL −8.8%.
- Which is cheaper, GLD or UGL?
- GLD is cheaper, by 0.55 percentage points a year. That is about $55 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, GLD against UGL, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-ugl
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[GLD against UGL (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-ugl)
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