Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
IAU vs PVAL: Differences, Returns & Fees
IAU is a commodity fund and PVAL an actively managed equity fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, PVAL returned +26.6% against +2.7%.
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Net assets: $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust, and $14.1bn on Aug 31, 2026 for Putnam Focused Large Cap Value ETF.
Pair scorecard
IAU costs 0.30 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 23.9 points.
| Measure | IAU | PVAL |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.7% | +26.6% |
| 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% | 0.55% |
| Net assets, IAU as of Oct 28, 2026 and PVAL as of Aug 31, 2026 | $60.1bn | $14.1bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 91% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 42.8% | |
Risk and return
Jun 4, 2021 to Oct 23, 2026 · 281 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; PVAL against IWD, Jun 4, 2021 to Oct 23, 2026.
PVAL returned more: +123.6% to +108.5%. PVAL swung less: 14.9% to 16.7%. PVAL fell less at its worst: −15.6% to −24.1%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | IAU | PVAL | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +108.5% | +123.6% | PVAL | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +14.6% | +16.1% | PVAL (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +108.5% | +111.2% | PVAL (slight) | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 16.7% | 14.9% | PVAL | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 11.0% | 10.1% | PVAL (slight) | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −24.1% | −15.6% | PVAL | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.4% | 105.1% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 94.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 1.01 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.93 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.68 | 0.83 | PVAL | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.03 | 1.23 | PVAL | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.098 | 0.123 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.60 | 1.03 | PVAL | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | GLD | IWD | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.1% a year | +4.5% a year | IAU not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.67 | 2.66 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.2% to +0.4% | +1.2% to +7.8% | IAU includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.18 | 1.16 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 3.9% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 281 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
IAU and PVAL on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
IAU and PVAL do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. IAU follows Gold and PVAL follows No index, actively managed.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 IAU returned +2.7% and PVAL +26.6% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 23.9 points.
- Cost. IAU charges 0.25% of assets a year and PVAL 0.55%, a gap of 0.30 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.
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +26.6% with distributions reinvested, against +27.5% for its benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index.
PVAL is actively managed and tracks no index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.55% a year. By its holdings filed for Aug 31, 2026, 91% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 44 positions, with the top ten at 42.8%.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, IAU or PVAL?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, IAU returned +2.7% and PVAL +26.6%.
- Which is cheaper, IAU or PVAL?
- IAU is cheaper, by 0.30 percentage points a year. That is about $30 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, IAU against PVAL, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-pval
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