AGMI vs GDX

AGMIBThemes Silver Miners ETF

GDXBVanEck Gold Miners ETF

In short

AGMI Most "precious metals miners" funds are gold funds with a silver garnish. AGMI is the straight shot: an index of about 40 global silver miners, run at 0.35% a year, under what the category typically charges.

GDX The original gold miner ETF, running since 2006. Roughly 60 mining companies in one ticker, for people who want equity exposure to gold's economics rather than a bar in a vault.

Stated mandate

AGMI The Fund is designed to follow an index of companies materially exposed to silver mining, with returns pursued before fees and expenses.

GDX GDX seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MarketVector Global Gold Miners Index, which is designed to represent companies involved in gold mining.

Why people hold it

• AGMI 0.35% a year undercuts the category's typical fee and the bigger names beside it: RING and SLVP at 0.39%, GDX at 0.51%, GDXJ at 0.52%.
• Silver, not gold with a silver sleeve. It follows the STOXX Global Silver Miners Index: companies materially exposed to silver mining, listed anywhere in the world.
• About 40 holdings, passively indexed. The miners actually digging silver stay visible instead of being diluted inside a broad metals basket.
• Lands in the upper tier of its precious-metals-miner peer group, with cost doing much of the heavy lifting.

• GDX Launched in 2006, this is the elder statesman of gold mining funds: a multi-billion-dollar portfolio that is very actively traded, which usually means easy entries and exits.
• Owns the diggers, not the metal. It tracks the MarketVector Global Gold Miners Index, roughly 60 companies whose profits swing on the gap between gold prices and mining costs.
• At a 0.51% expense ratio it sits right at the typical price for a precious-metals miner fund, and it grades in the top quartile of its 18-fund peer group.

Worth knowing

• AGMI A 2024 launch with a small asset base and light trading. Spreads can run wider than the category's veterans, and there is little history to judge it on.
• One metal, one industry. Miners' costs are fixed while silver's price moves, so their shares tend to swing harder than the metal in both directions.
• Distributions come once or twice a year, not monthly. This is a miners fund, not an income sleeve.

• GDX Cheaper shelf-mates exist. RING covers global gold miners at 0.39%, so you are paying a bit extra here, largely for scale and trading depth.
• Miner stocks are not bullion. They carry operating costs, debt, labor and country risk on top of the gold price, so moves tend to be sharper in both directions.
• Distributions come annually or semiannually, so this is an equity growth vehicle rather than a steady income line.

Full AGMI profile⁠

Full GDX profile⁠