GDX vs SILJ

GDXBVanEck Gold Miners ETF

SILJCAmplify Junior Silver Miners ETF

In short

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.

SILJ The original junior-silver play. Since 2012 SILJ has done one job: passively track an index of roughly 70 small silver miners, producers and explorers, the high-octane end of a niche most metals funds cover with gold.

Stated mandate

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.

SILJ The Fund is a passively managed ETF seeking results that generally correspond, before fees and expenses, to an index focused on companies engaged in silver mining.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• SILJ Pure junior-silver mandate: the index holds companies that earn most of their revenue from silver mining, production or exploration, not a gold fund with a silver garnish.amplifyetfs.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, which matters in a corner of the market built from thin, tiny stocks.
• Rules over hunches: a passive fund that rebalances when its Nasdaq index does, with roughly 70 holdings and a published methodology behind them.amplifyetfs.com
• Launched in 2012, it has run through several silver cycles and kept the same strategy through a change of sponsor to Amplify and an index renaming in 2024.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• 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.

• SILJ The 0.69% expense ratio sits above the typical fee in its precious-metals-miner peer group. Specialist access has a sticker price.
• Non-diversified by design and concentrated in metals and mining, so a handful of names can drive the outcome.amplifyetfs.com
• Junior miners are the geared end of silver. The prospectus flags small-cap, foreign-issuer and commodity-price risks that move the fund in both directions.amplifyetfs.com

Full GDX profile⁠

Full SILJ profile⁠