BAR vs SGOL

BARBGraniteShares Gold Trust

SGOLBabrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF

In short

BAR Real bars in a London vault, listed one by one on the sponsor's site every day. BAR landed in 2017 as the boutique fee-fighter among gold trusts: no lending, no derivatives, a 0.17% sponsor fee.

SGOL A 2009-vintage trust that owns actual gold bars and does exactly one job: track bullion's price after a 0.17% fee. Middle of the pack on cost, front of the pack on doing what the prospectus says.

Stated mandate

BAR The Trust seeks to have each Share’s value reflect the value of its gold assets after accrued expenses and liabilities, providing a simple way to invest similarly to gold.

SGOL The Trust seeks to track the price of physical gold bullion, after deducting its expenses.

Why people hold it

• BAR Bullion only: the gold sits in ICBC Standard Bank's London vault, lending of the metal isn't permitted, and the trust can't hold derivatives.graniteshares.comsec.gov
• You can check the claim: the bar list is published daily, and outside inspector Bureau Veritas visits the vault twice a year, one of those visits at random.graniteshares.comgraniteshares.com 2
• Plain passive plumbing: mirror the LBMA Gold Price PM less expenses. It has hugged that gold benchmark very tightly.

• SGOL Plain plumbing: a grantor trust holding physical bullion, with one job written into its own documents, to track the price of gold after deducting expenses.
• Tracks the metal about as closely as the wrapper allows, one of the cleanest mandate implementations among physical gold funds.
• Trading since 2009, through several full gold cycles, and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands actively.

Worth knowing

• BAR No income here. Gold pays nothing, and the trust sells a sliver of its bullion to cover expenses, so the ounces behind each share drift down over time.graniteshares.com
• Cheaper doors to the same metal exist: GLDM and IAUM both undercut BAR's fee, and BAR is only moderately traded next to the category's volume leaders.
• Tax quirk of the wrapper: under current law, long-term gains on gold held through the trust are taxed as collectibles, at a maximum 28% rate.sec.gov

• SGOL Cost sits at the category median: 0.17% a year, while IAUM (0.09%) and GLDM (0.10%) charge less to hold the same metal.
• Bullion throws off no income. This is a price-of-gold holding, not a cash-flow one, and the fee comes out of trust assets.
• One metal, no diversification. The shares go where gold goes, including the long flat stretches and sharp drawdowns.

Full BAR profile⁠

Full SGOL profile⁠