Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
IAU vs IEFA: Differences, Returns & Fees
IAU is a commodity fund and IEFA an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, IEFA returned +12.3% against +2.7%.
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Net assets on Oct 28, 2026: $60.1bn for iShares Gold Trust and $190.4bn for iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF.
Pair scorecard
IEFA costs 0.18 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 9.6 points; IEFA is 3.2 times larger.
| Measure | IAU | IEFA |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.7% | +12.3% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | 4.7%, high on Aug 25, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | MSCI EAFE IMI Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.25% | 0.07% |
| Net assets | $60.1bn | $190.4bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 0% | |
| Holdings dated | Oct 27, 2026 | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 12.3% | |
Risk and return
Nov 2, 2012 to Oct 23, 2026 · 729 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; IEFA against ACWX, Nov 2, 2012 to Oct 23, 2026.
IEFA returned more: +199.1% to +130.1%. IAU swung slightly less: 15.6% to 16.2%. IEFA fell less at its worst: −34.1% to −40.0%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | IAU | IEFA | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +130.1% | +199.1% | IEFA | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +6.1% | +8.1% | IEFA | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +130.1% | +100.2% | IAU | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 15.6% | 16.2% | IAU (slight) | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.8% | 11.5% | IAU (slight) | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −40.0% | −34.1% | IEFA | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.4% | 98.1% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 97.7% | 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 | 0.96 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.34 | 0.45 | IEFA | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.50 | 0.64 | IEFA | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.098 | 0.073 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.15 | 0.24 | IEFA | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | GLD | ACWX | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.1% a year | +0.8% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.67 | 0.96 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.2% to +0.4% | −0.9% to +2.5% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.18 | 0.25 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 3.2% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 729 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
IAU and IEFA on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
IAU and IEFA do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. IAU follows Gold and IEFA follows MSCI EAFE IMI Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 IAU returned +2.7% and IEFA +12.3% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 9.6 points.
- Cost. IAU charges 0.25% of assets a year and IEFA 0.07%, a gap of 0.18 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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Its expense ratio is 0.25% a year, for the three months to Jun 30, 2026, as its 10-Q states.
IAU holds gold. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +2.7% with distributions reinvested, against +2.5% for its benchmark, the price of gold. It sat 24.6% below its high of Jan 29, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
IEFA
IEFA tracks the MSCI EAFE. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +12.3% with distributions reinvested, against +14.3% for its benchmark, the MSCI ACWI ex USA Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.07% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 2,629 positions, with the top ten at 12.3%. It sat 4.7% below its high of Aug 25, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, IAU or IEFA?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, IAU returned +2.7% and IEFA +12.3%.
- Which is cheaper, IAU or IEFA?
- IEFA is cheaper, by 0.18 percentage points a year. That is about $18 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, IAU against IEFA, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-iefa
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