Data as of Sep 19, 2026.
GLD vs XTR: how they differ
Over the year GLD returned more, +19.5% to XTR's +12.0%, and XTR charges 0.25% to GLD's 0.40%.
SPDR Gold Shares and Global X S&P 500 Tail Risk ETF.
| GLD SPDR Gold Shares | XTR Global X S&P 500 Tail Risk ETF | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | Core fund | Alternatives ETF |
| Issuer | State Street | Global X |
| What it is | Holds gold | Hedged equity |
| Total return, 1 year | +19.5% | +12.0% |
| S&P 500 over the same days | +16.6% | +16.6% |
| Gap to the S&P 500 | +3.0 pts | −4.6 pts |
| Expense ratio | 0.40% | 0.25% |
| Net assets | $147.8bn | $5m |
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.
XTR in plain words
XTR 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 +0.99 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of +0.90, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.90% the same way. The S&P 500 fell in 22 of those 52 weeks, by 1.24% on average. In the same weeks XTR fell 1.20% on average, a down-week capture of 96.7%. Over the same 52 weeks XTR returned +11.4% and a Treasury bill fund +3.6%, so it finished 7.8 percentage points ahead of cash.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, GLD or XTR?
- In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, GLD returned +19.5% and XTR returned +12.0%, so GLD returned more.
- Which is cheaper, GLD or XTR?
- GLD charges 0.40% a year and XTR charges 0.25%, so XTR is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
- Are GLD and XTR the same kind of fund?
- No. GLD is a commodity ETF and XTR 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
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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.
Cite this page. ETFIQ, GLD against XTR, data as of Sep 19, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/gld-vs-xtr Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.
A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources