Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SLV vs TLT: Differences, Returns & Fees
SLV is a commodity fund and TLT a bond index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SLV returned +14.9% against −7.9%.
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Net assets: $26.9bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Silver Trust, and $47.4bn on Oct 27, 2026 for iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF.
Pair scorecard
TLT costs 0.35 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 22.8 points; TLT is 1.8 times larger.
| Measure | SLV | TLT |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +14.9% | −7.9% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 53.5%, high on Jan 28, 2026 | 42.6%, high on Aug 4, 2020 |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Silver | ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.50% | 0.15% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $26.5bn | $47.4bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
Risk and return
May 5, 2006 to Oct 23, 2026 · 1,068 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: SLV against SIVR, Jul 31, 2009 to Oct 23, 2026; TLT against BBLB, Apr 28, 2023 to Oct 23, 2026.
SLV returned more: +248.1% to +87.1%. TLT swung less: 14.0% to 32.5%. TLT fell less at its worst: −47.8% to −75.2%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SLV | TLT | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +248.1% | +87.1% | SLV | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +6.3% | +3.1% | SLV | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +248.1% | −2.7% | SLV | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 32.5% | 14.0% | TLT | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 23.0% | 9.8% | TLT | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −75.2% | −47.8% | TLT | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.2% | 102.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.2% | 101.2% | 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 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.30 | 0.17 | SLV | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.42 | 0.24 | SLV | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.107 | −0.072 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.08 | 0.06 | SLV | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SIVR | BBLB | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.2% a year | 0.0% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.92 | −0.01 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.6% to +0.2% | −0.8% to +0.8% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.19 | −0.10 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.8% | 0.7% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 1,068 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
SLV and TLT on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
SLV and TLT do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SLV follows Silver and TLT follows ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 SLV returned +14.9% and TLT −7.9% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 22.8 points.
- Cost. SLV charges 0.50% of assets a year and TLT 0.15%, a gap of 0.35 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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Its expense ratio is 0.50% a year, for the three months to Jun 30, 2026, as its 10-Q states.
SLV holds silver. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +14.9% with distributions reinvested, against +15.0% for its benchmark, the price of silver. It sat 53.5% below its high of Jan 28, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
TLT
TLT tracks an index of 20+ year Treasuries. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned −7.9% with distributions reinvested, against −7.8% for its benchmark, the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.15% a year. It sat 42.6% below its high of Aug 4, 2020 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, SLV or TLT?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SLV returned +14.9% and TLT −7.9%.
- Which is cheaper, SLV or TLT?
- TLT is cheaper, by 0.35 percentage points a year. That is about $35 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, SLV against TLT, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/slv-vs-tlt
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). SLV against TLT. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/slv-vs-tlt
[SLV against TLT (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/slv-vs-tlt)
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