SPDR® Gold Shares

What this fund is

SPDR® Gold Shares is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from SPDR, traded under the ticker GLD (ISIN US78463V1070). One trade buys a whole basket of holdings, so your money is spread out instead of riding on a single company. In plain terms it is about tracking physical commodities like gold or oil, which often move differently from shares and are used to spread risk or hedge inflation, spread across its target market. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the LBMA Gold Price PM index — the passive, low-cost approach.

It is typically held as a diversifier — a slice that behaves differently from mainstream shares — rather than as a portfolio's main engine. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.4% a year — about €40 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in the United States and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 27.8% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality.

It launched in 2004. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from SPDR.)