VanEck Merk Gold ETF
$41.22−0.70 (−1.68%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.25%
- Fund size
- $2.8B
- 1Y return
- +16.2%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- —
- Volume · 30D
- 0.7M sh
- NAV per share
- $41.75
- 52W range
The ETF.net OUNZ Grade
Score 58 of 100 sits in the B band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.DScore 26Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 100Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 49Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 61Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.Not scoredDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.BScore 60Category rank
Our read on OUNZ
BMost gold funds hand you a claim on metal you will never touch. OUNZ, running since 2014, writes a different option into its prospectus: shareholders can exchange shares for physical gold bullion. Same metal exposure, with a door to the real thing.
The fund provides exposure to gold through exchange-traded shares and allows investors the option to receive physical gold bullion in exchange for shares.
Why people hold it
- The distinguishing feature is in the prospectus: investors have the option to receive physical gold bullion in exchange for their shares.vaneck.com
- One job, done cleanly. The reference asset is physical gold, and the shares have tracked that mandate closely.
- Trading since 2014, now a multi-billion-dollar and actively traded fund, so it is not a thin-market curiosity.
Worth knowing
- The delivery option is not free: 0.25% a year sits above the physical-gold group's 0.17% median, and above GLDM at 0.10% and IAUM at 0.09%.
- Bullion generates no cash flow, and the fund pays no distributions. Everything rides on the metal's price.
- It is a trust wrapper rather than a conventional registered fund, so the legal structure differs from a standard ETF.vaneck.com
OUNZ Holdings
- Other
- —
- 100%
- Physical Gold
OUNZ Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | OUNZ |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +1.1% |
| 1 month | −5.5% |
| 3 months | +4.0% |
| 1 year | +16.2% |
| 3 years | +31.0% |
| 5 years | +19.5% |
| 10 years | +12.2% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | OUNZ |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +1.1% | |
| 2025 | +64.0% | |
| 2024 | +26.8% | |
| 2023 | +12.8% | |
| 2022 | −0.5% | |
| 2021 | −4.0% | |
| 2020 | +24.7% |
OUNZ in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on OUNZ yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
OUNZ Dividends
No distributions in the last 12 months.
OUNZ Risk
- 18.7%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 1.33
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −26.3%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.34
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
OUNZ Cost
- The middle half of Physical Gold funds
- Median 0.17%
7 of the 10 Physical Gold funds charge less.