Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
IAU vs XLK: Differences, Returns & Fees
IAU is a commodity fund and XLK an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, XLK returned +27.1% against +2.7%.
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Net assets: $60.1bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Gold Trust, and $125.0bn on Oct 27, 2026 for State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF.
Pair scorecard
XLK costs 0.17 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 24.4 points; XLK is 2.1 times larger.
| Measure | IAU | XLK |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +2.7% | +27.1% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 24.6%, high on Jan 29, 2026 | 5.4%, high on Oct 6, 2026 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Gold | Technology Select Sector Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.25% | 0.08% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $60.3bn | $125.0bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 64.6% | |
Risk and return
Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026 · 1,133 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: IAU against GLD, Feb 4, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026; XLK against SPY, Dec 31, 1998 to Oct 23, 2026.
XLK returned more: +2,275.5% to +805.4%. IAU swung less: 17.4% to 20.5%. IAU fell less at its worst: −44.4% to −50.7%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | IAU | XLK | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +805.4% | +2,275.5% | XLK | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +10.6% | +15.6% | XLK | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +805.4% | +1,708.8% | XLK | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 17.4% | 20.5% | IAU | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 11.9% | 13.9% | IAU | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.4% | −50.7% | IAU | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.4% | 138.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 113.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 1.15 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.73 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.56 | 0.72 | XLK | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.82 | 1.07 | XLK | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.098 | 0.094 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.24 | 0.31 | XLK | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | GLD | SPY | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.1% a year | +1.6% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.67 | 0.67 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.2% to +0.4% | −3.0% to +6.1% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.18 | 0.22 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.7% | 12.6% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 1,133 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
IAU and XLK on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
IAU and XLK do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. IAU follows Gold and XLK follows Technology Select Sector Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 IAU returned +2.7% and XLK +27.1% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 24.4 points.
- Cost. IAU charges 0.25% of assets a year and XLK 0.08%, a gap of 0.17 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.
XLK
XLK tracks an index of Technology. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +27.1% with distributions reinvested, against +13.6% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.08% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 76 positions, with the top ten at 64.6%. It sat 5.4% below its high of Oct 6, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, IAU or XLK?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, IAU returned +2.7% and XLK +27.1%.
- Which is cheaper, IAU or XLK?
- XLK is cheaper, by 0.17 percentage points a year. That is about $17 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, IAU against XLK, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/iau-vs-xlk
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