Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SLV vs VCSH: Differences, Returns & Fees
SLV is a commodity fund and VCSH a bond index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SLV returned +14.9% against +1.3%.
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Net assets: $26.9bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Silver Trust, and $43.9bn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF.
Pair scorecard
VCSH costs 0.47 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 13.6 points; VCSH is 1.5 times larger.
| Measure | SLV | VCSH |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +14.9% | +1.3% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 53.5%, high on Jan 28, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Silver | Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.50% | 0.03% |
| Net assets, as of Sep 30, 2026 | $30.0bn | $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: SLV against SIVR, Jul 31, 2009 to Oct 23, 2026; VCSH against SCHJ, Oct 18, 2019 to Oct 23, 2026.
SLV returned more: +168.4% to +59.9%. VCSH swung less: 3.5% to 31.0%. VCSH fell less at its worst: −11.3% to −75.2%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SLV | VCSH | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +168.4% | +59.9% | SLV | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +6.0% | +2.8% | SLV | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +168.4% | +2.8% | SLV | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 31.0% | 3.5% | VCSH | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 21.5% | 2.5% | VCSH | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −75.2% | −11.3% | VCSH | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.2% | 98.3% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.2% | 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 | 0.30 | 0.37 | VCSH | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.43 | 0.52 | VCSH | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.107 | −0.003 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.08 | 0.25 | VCSH | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SIVR | SCHJ | 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 | −0.29 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.6% to +0.2% | −0.4% to +0.3% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.19 | −0.06 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.8% | 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
SLV and VCSH on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
SLV and VCSH do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SLV follows Silver and VCSH follows Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 SLV returned +14.9% and VCSH +1.3% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 13.6 points.
- Cost. SLV charges 0.50% of assets a year and VCSH 0.03%, a gap of 0.47 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.
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, SLV or VCSH?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SLV returned +14.9% and VCSH +1.3%.
- Which is cheaper, SLV or VCSH?
- VCSH is cheaper, by 0.47 percentage points a year. That is about $47 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, SLV against VCSH, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/slv-vs-vcsh
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