GLD vs GLDM

GLDBSPDR Gold Shares

GLDMASPDR Gold MiniShares Trust

In short

GLD Gold in a brokerage account, running since 2004: a trust that holds physical bullion and trades like a stock. It's the heavyweight of the gold shelf, and the fee is the price of that depth.

GLDM The house that built the original gold ETF later built a cheaper one. GLDM holds physical gold bullion, charges 0.10% a year (a quarter of its older sibling's fee), and has grown into a multi-billion-dollar fund.

Stated mandate

GLD GLD seeks to have its shares track the price of gold bullion after the Trust’s operating expenses.

GLDM GLDM seeks to reflect the performance of gold bullion, less the fund's expenses.

Why people hold it

• GLD Does the one job it advertises: shares track the price of gold bullion after the trust's expenses, and the tracking is among the tightest in the gold group.
• Huge and very actively traded, which is why spreads tend to be thin and large orders usually find the other side quickly.
• Plain structure: a grantor trust holding physical gold. No futures, no roll schedule, no leverage between you and the metal.
• Trading since 2004, one of the longest-running gold vehicles on the US market and through several gold cycles.

• GLDM Ten basis points a year for bullion exposure, below the typical fee among physical gold funds and a quarter of the 0.40% on GLD, the sponsor's original gold trust.
• Simple plumbing: a grantor trust that holds metal and seeks to reflect gold bullion less expenses. No futures roll, no swap counterparty, no miner-stock beta in the way.
• One of the strongest implementations in its peer group, and among the more actively traded gold funds, which tends to keep the spread you pay getting in and out modest.
• Launched in 2018 as the low-fee sibling to the 2004 original, it is now a large, established trust rather than a niche launch hoping to find an audience.

Worth knowing

• GLD 0.40% a year is the toll for that liquidity: more than double the typical physical-gold ETF fee, and above its own cheaper sibling GLDM at 0.10%.
• No dividends or interest. Bullion pays nothing, so the gold price minus the trust's expenses is the entire story.
• Gold moves in big swings, with no earnings or yield underneath to soften them.

• GLDM Gold pays nothing. No dividends, no interest, and the trust covers its expenses out of the metal, so gold per share drifts down over time.
• One metal, one price. This is undiversified exposure to bullion, and gold can swing hard in both directions.
• A couple of rivals list lower headline fees (IAUM at 0.09%, FGDL at 0.00%) for similar physical gold exposure.

Full GLD profile⁠

Full GLDM profile⁠