SGDJ vs SLVP

SGDJBSprott Junior Gold Miners ETF

SLVPBiShares MSCI Global Silver and Metals Miners ETF

In short

SGDJ Junior gold, filtered. Sprott runs roughly 30 explorers, developers and producers through a revenue-growth and price-momentum screen instead of owning the entire junior bench by size alone.

SLVP About 40 global silver and metals miners in one ticker, priced below the typical precious-metals miner fund. Running since 2012, and read the 'metals miners' part of the name: the index reaches past pure silver plays.

Stated mandate

SGDJ The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Solactive Junior Gold Miners Custom Factor Index. It uses passive indexing and invests primarily in junior gold companies, including exploration-stage companies, developers and producers.

SLVP The fund is designed to follow an index of worldwide companies whose principal business is silver exploration or metals mining.

Why people hold it

• SGDJ The screen is the whole point: the index tilts toward junior miners with better revenue growth and price momentum, not just whatever is small and listed.
• 0.50% a year, a shade under the median for precious-metals miner funds and under GDXJ's 0.52% for the broader junior basket.
• Trading since 2015 from a house built around precious metals, and it sits in the upper half of its miner peer group on our review.
• Rules-based and passive: it follows a published Solactive index rather than a manager's stock picks, so you can see what the portfolio is chasing.

• SLVP 0.39% a year undercuts the 0.52% median for precious-metals miner funds, and matches the fee on the iShares gold-miner sibling, RING.
• Global mandate, not a US-listing screen: the MSCI ACWI Select Silver Miners IMI covers worldwide companies whose principal business is silver exploration or metals mining.
• Trading since 2012, one of the longer-running silver miner funds on the shelf, and it stands among the stronger implementations in its precious-metals mining peer group.

Worth knowing

• SGDJ Juniors are the jumpy end of an already jumpy sector. Exploration-stage names move on drill results and financing, not only on the gold price.
• About 30 holdings, spread across US, developed, emerging and frontier listings. Concentration means one company's news lands harder than in a broad miner index.
• Moderately traded rather than a top-of-book name, so spreads deserve a look and limit orders earn their keep.

• SLVP Roughly 40 stocks, so individual miners carry real weight and the whole basket keys off one metal's fortunes.
• "And Metals Miners" is doing work in the name: the mandate covers silver exploration or metals mining, so diversified miners can sit beside pure silver plays.
• Not the cheapest silver miner ticket: AGMI lists at 0.35%, though it lacks SLVP's record back to 2012.

Full SGDJ profile⁠

Full SLVP profile⁠