Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
IAU vs VCSH: Differences, Returns & Fees
IAU is a commodity fund and VCSH a bond index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, IAU returned +2.7% against +1.3%.
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Net assets: $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust, and $43.9bn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF.
Pair scorecard
VCSH costs 0.22 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 1.4 points; IAU is 1.4 times larger.
| Measure | IAU | VCSH |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.7% | +1.3% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.25% | 0.03% |
| Net assets, as of Sep 30, 2026 | $62.2bn | $43.9bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
Risk and return
Dec 4, 2009 to Oct 23, 2026 · 881 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; VCSH against SCHJ, Oct 18, 2019 to Oct 23, 2026.
IAU returned more: +230.0% to +59.9%. VCSH swung less: 3.5% to 15.8%. VCSH fell less at its worst: −11.3% to −44.4%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | IAU | VCSH | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +230.0% | +59.9% | IAU | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +7.3% | +2.8% | IAU | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +230.0% | +2.8% | IAU | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 15.8% | 3.5% | VCSH | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.9% | 2.5% | VCSH | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.4% | −11.3% | VCSH | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.4% | 98.3% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 98.3% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 0.95 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.99 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.43 | 0.37 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.62 | 0.52 | IAU | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.098 | −0.003 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.16 | 0.25 | VCSH | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | GLD | SCHJ | 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 | −0.29 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.2% to +0.4% | −0.4% to +0.3% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.18 | −0.06 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 0.5% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 881 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
IAU and VCSH on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
IAU and VCSH do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. IAU follows Gold and VCSH follows Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index.
- Cost. IAU charges 0.25% of assets a year and VCSH 0.03%, a gap of 0.22 points.
- One-year total return (similar). Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 IAU returned +2.7% and VCSH +1.3% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 1.4 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.
VCSH
VCSH tracks an index of Short-Term Corporate Bond. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +1.3% with distributions reinvested, against +1.3% for its benchmark, the Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.03% a year.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, IAU or VCSH?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, IAU returned +2.7% and VCSH +1.3%.
- Which is cheaper, IAU or VCSH?
- VCSH is cheaper, by 0.22 percentage points a year. That is about $22 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, IAU against VCSH, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-vcsh
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). IAU against VCSH. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-vcsh
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