Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
GLD vs XLY: Differences, Returns & Fees
GLD is a commodity fund and XLY an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, GLD returned +2.5% against −3.6%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $135.8bn for SPDR Gold Shares and $22.4bn for State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF.
Pair scorecard
XLY costs 0.32 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 6.1 points; GLD is 6.1 times larger.
| Measure | GLD | XLY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.5% | −3.6% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.7%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | 6.8%, high on Jan 12, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.40% | 0.08% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $135.8bn | $22.4bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 68.5% | |
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; XLY against SPY, Dec 31, 1998 to Oct 23, 2026.
XLY returned slightly more: +762.5% to +709.5%. GLD swung less: 17.3% to 21.3%. GLD fell less at its worst: −44.7% to −58.4%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | GLD | XLY | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +709.5% | +762.5% | XLY (slight) | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +10.0% | +10.3% | XLY (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +709.5% | +557.2% | GLD | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 17.3% | 21.3% | GLD | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 11.9% | 14.4% | GLD | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.7% | −58.4% | GLD | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 99.4% | 118.0% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 99.9% | 106.8% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 1.10 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.77 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.53 | 0.48 | GLD (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.77 | 0.71 | GLD (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.097 | 0.087 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.22 | 0.18 | GLD | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | IAU | SPY | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.1% a year | +0.7% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.57 | 0.34 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.4% to +0.2% | −3.2% to +4.6% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.18 | 0.14 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 10.6% | 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 XLY on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
GLD and XLY do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. GLD follows Gold and XLY follows Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 GLD returned +2.5% and XLY −3.6% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 6.1 points.
- Cost. GLD charges 0.40% of assets a year and XLY 0.08%, a gap of 0.32 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.
XLY
XLY tracks an index of Consumer discretionary. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned −3.6% with distributions reinvested, against +13.6% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.08% 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 48 positions, with the top ten at 68.5%. It sat 6.8% below its high of Jan 12, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, GLD or XLY?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +2.5% and XLY −3.6%.
- Which is cheaper, GLD or XLY?
- XLY is cheaper, by 0.32 percentage points a year. That is about $32 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, GLD against XLY, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-xly
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