IGLD vs YGLD

IGLDAFT Vest Gold Strategy Target Income ETF

YGLDCSimplify Gold Strategy PLUS Income ETF

In short

IGLD Gold that pays you monthly. IGLD holds Treasuries plus options tied to the SPDR Gold Trust, chasing bullion's price moves while selling calls to fund a monthly distribution. Running since 2021.

YGLD Most gold-income ETFs sell calls on gold and cap its upside. YGLD flips it: up to roughly 150% gold exposure via futures, with the income coming from option spreads written on other ETFs. 0.62% a year, below the category norm.

Stated mandate

IGLD The fund seeks participation in the price returns of SPDR Gold Trust while providing consistent income. It invests mainly in U.S. Treasury securities and a subsidiary holding exchange-traded options referencing that gold ETF.

YGLD The Fund seeks income and capital appreciation through an actively managed gold futures strategy and an income-generating options strategy.

Why people hold it

• IGLD An early mover in gold options-income. Launched in 2021, it has run its call-selling engine through real gold cycles, not a backtest.ftportfolios.com
• 0.85% a year undercuts the typical fee in the gold options-income crowd.
• Plain plumbing: Treasuries as collateral, a subsidiary holding the gold options, all inside a standard 1940 Act fund. No K-1 partnership paperwork.ftportfolios.com
• Distributions land monthly, and the fund sits among the stronger builds in its peer group for doing what its documents say.

• YGLD The income is not carved out of gold's upside. Rather than selling calls on gold, the fund writes put and call spreads on equity, bond and currency ETFs, and distributes monthly.sec.gov
• At 0.62% it undercuts every peer at the top of the gold-income group: IAUI at 0.79%, SLJY at 0.76%, IGLD at 0.85%, KGLD at 0.99%. Gross and net are the same figure, with no waiver holding it down.
• Futures carry the gold exposure, targeting about 150% per dollar at the start of each quarter and resetting quarterly, not daily. No daily compounding reset to track.sec.govsimplify.us

Worth knowing

• IGLD No bars in a vault here. Exposure comes from options referencing a gold ETF, and the calls sold to fund income trim how much of a gold rally you keep.ftportfolios.com
• Part of a payout can be return of capital, which is your own money coming back and lowers your cost basis.ftportfolios.com
• Not the cheapest seat in the room: YGLD charges 0.53% for its own gold-plus-income spin.

• YGLD Leverage works in both directions. At roughly 150% exposure a drop in gold lands harder, and since the reset is quarterly, actual exposure drifts above or below that target in between.simplify.us
• The options sleeve carries its own separate risk: a written spread can lose up to the gap between its two strike prices, on ETFs that have nothing to do with gold.simplify.us
• Plumbing to know: up to 25% of assets sits in a wholly owned Cayman subsidiary outside 1940 Act protections, and this is one of the smaller, lighter-traded funds in its category.sec.gov

Full IGLD profile⁠

Full YGLD profile⁠