Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
IAU vs PDBC: Differences, Returns & Fees
IAU is a commodity fund and PDBC an actively managed commodity fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, PDBC returned +55.6% against +2.7%.
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Net assets: $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust, and $8.0bn on Oct 27, 2026 for Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF.
Pair scorecard
IAU costs 0.34 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 52.9 points; IAU is 7.5 times larger.
| Measure | IAU | PDBC |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.7% | +55.6% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | No index, actively managed |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.25% | 0.59% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $60.3bn | $8.0bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
Risk and return
Nov 14, 2014 to Oct 23, 2026 · 623 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; PDBC against DBC, Nov 14, 2014 to Oct 23, 2026.
IAU returned more: +225.9% to +85.7%. IAU swung less: 15.4% to 18.0%. IAU fell less at its worst: −24.1% to −48.3%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | IAU | PDBC | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +225.9% | +85.7% | IAU | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +10.4% | +5.3% | IAU | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +225.9% | −17.2% | IAU | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 15.4% | 18.0% | IAU | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.2% | 12.3% | IAU | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −24.1% | −48.3% | IAU | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.4% | 98.9% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 99.6% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 0.99 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.98 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.58 | 0.26 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.88 | 0.38 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.098 | 0.047 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.43 | 0.11 | IAU | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | GLD | DBC | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.1% a year | 0.0% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.67 | 0.02 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.2% to +0.4% | −1.5% to +1.5% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.18 | 0.00 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 2.6% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 623 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
IAU and PDBC on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
IAU and PDBC do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. IAU follows Gold and PDBC follows No index, actively managed.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 IAU returned +2.7% and PDBC +55.6% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 52.9 points.
- Cost. IAU charges 0.25% of assets a year and PDBC 0.59%, a gap of 0.34 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.
PDBC
PDBC is actively managed and tracks no index. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +55.6% with distributions reinvested, against +54.6% for its benchmark, the DBIQ Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Index Excess Return. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.59% a year.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, IAU or PDBC?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, IAU returned +2.7% and PDBC +55.6%.
- Which is cheaper, IAU or PDBC?
- IAU is cheaper, by 0.34 percentage points a year. That is about $34 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, IAU against PDBC, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-pdbc
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). IAU against PDBC. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-pdbc
[IAU against PDBC (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-pdbc)
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