Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
IAU vs IEMG: Differences, Returns & Fees
IAU is a commodity fund and IEMG an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, IEMG returned +15.3% against +2.7%.
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Net assets: $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust, and $150.4bn on Oct 27, 2026 for iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF.
Pair scorecard
IEMG costs 0.16 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 12.6 points; IEMG is 2.5 times larger.
| Measure | IAU | IEMG |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.7% | +15.3% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | 10.1%, high on Jun 22, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index (IMI) |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.25% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $60.3bn | $150.4bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 0% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 32.7% | |
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; IEMG against EEM, Nov 2, 2012 to Oct 23, 2026.
IAU returned slightly more: +130.1% to +120.7%. IAU swung less: 15.6% to 18.2%. IEMG fell slightly less at its worst: −37.1% to −40.0%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | IAU | IEMG | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +130.1% | +120.7% | IAU (slight) | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +6.1% | +5.8% | IAU (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +130.1% | +56.0% | IAU | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 15.6% | 18.2% | IAU | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.8% | 13.0% | IAU | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −40.0% | −37.1% | IEMG (slight) | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.4% | 94.6% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 97.1% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 0.96 | 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 | 0.34 | 0.30 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.50 | 0.42 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.098 | 0.057 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.15 | 0.16 | IEMG (slight) | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | GLD | EEM | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.1% a year | +0.7% a year | IAU not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.67 | 2.17 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.2% to +0.4% | +0.1% to +1.4% | IAU includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.18 | 0.38 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 1.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 729 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
IAU and IEMG on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
IAU and IEMG do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. IAU follows Gold and IEMG follows MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index (IMI).
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 IAU returned +2.7% and IEMG +15.3% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 12.6 points.
- Cost. IAU charges 0.25% of assets a year and IEMG 0.09%, a gap of 0.16 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.
IEMG
IEMG tracks the MSCI Emerging Markets. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +15.3% with distributions reinvested, against +16.3% for its benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% 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 2,857 positions, with the top ten at 32.7%. It sat 10.1% below its high of Jun 22, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, IAU or IEMG?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, IAU returned +2.7% and IEMG +15.3%.
- Which is cheaper, IAU or IEMG?
- IEMG is cheaper, by 0.16 percentage points a year. That is about $16 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.
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ETFIQ, IAU against IEMG, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-iemg
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). IAU against IEMG. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-iemg
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