Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SLV vs VHT: Differences, Returns & Fees
SLV is a commodity fund and VHT an equity index fund, and over the year to Oct 28, 2026, VHT returned +25.0% against +14.9%.
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Net assets: $26.9bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares Silver Trust, and $19.1bn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard Health Care ETF.
Pair scorecard
VHT costs 0.41 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 10.1 points; SLV is 1.6 times larger.
| Measure | SLV | VHT |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +14.9% | +25.0% |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 53.5%, high on Jan 28, 2026 | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Silver | MSCI US Investable Market Index (IMI)/Health Care 25/50 |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.50% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, as of Sep 30, 2026 | $30.0bn | $19.1bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 86% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 51.8% | |
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; VHT against FHLC, Nov 1, 2013 to Oct 23, 2026.
VHT returned more: +752.0% to +248.1%. VHT swung less: 16.9% to 32.5%. VHT fell less at its worst: −38.1% to −75.2%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SLV | VHT | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +248.1% | +752.0% | VHT | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +6.3% | +11.0% | VHT | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +248.1% | +525.2% | VHT | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 32.5% | 16.9% | VHT | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 23.0% | 12.0% | VHT | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −75.2% | −38.1% | VHT | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 100.2% | 100.7% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.2% | 100.2% | 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 | 0.60 | VHT | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.42 | 0.85 | VHT | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.107 | 0.103 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.08 | 0.29 | VHT | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SIVR | FHLC | 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 | 0.17 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.6% to +0.2% | −0.4% to +0.5% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.19 | 0.15 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.8% | 0.8% | 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 VHT on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
SLV and VHT do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SLV follows Silver and VHT follows MSCI US Investable Market Index (IMI)/Health Care 25/50.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 SLV returned +14.9% and VHT +25.0% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 10.1 points.
- Cost. SLV charges 0.50% of assets a year and VHT 0.09%, a gap of 0.41 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.
VHT
VHT tracks an index of Health Care. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +25.0% with distributions reinvested, against +25.4% for its benchmark, the MSCI US Investable Market Index (IMI)/Health Care 25/50. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer as of Sep 30, 2026, 86% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 414 positions, with the top ten at 51.8%.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, SLV or VHT?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SLV returned +14.9% and VHT +25.0%.
- Which is cheaper, SLV or VHT?
- VHT is cheaper, by 0.41 percentage points a year. That is about $41 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's own filings.
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ETFIQ, SLV against VHT, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/slv-vs-vht
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