Guide · Gold
Best gold ETFs
A physical-gold ETF holds bullion in a London or Zurich vault and issues shares against it. Each share represents a fixed claim on the underlying gold (about 1/100 of a troy ounce, depending on the fund). The result is exposure to spot gold without the storage, insurance, or contango headaches of holding individual coins or a futures-based fund.
How the scoring ranks these funds
Two physical-gold funds in the catalog, separated mostly by fee. IAU at 25 bps is the cheaper of the two and the higher-scoring; GLD at 40 bps is the original 2004 listing and remains the most liquid by a wide margin, which matters more for institutional traders than for buy-and-hold holders.
See the methodology for the full formula behind each sub-score.
Top picks
-
80
composite / 100
iShares Gold Trust. 25 bps; 1/100 oz per share. Higher-scoring than GLD on cost; functionally identical exposure. The standard choice for new buy-and-hold positions.
- Expense
- 0.25%
- AUM
- $71.46B
- Issuer
- iShares
- Detail
- IAU page →
-
73
composite / 100
SPDR Gold Shares. 40 bps; 1/10 oz per share originally (now ~0.094 oz after fee accretion). The most-traded gold ETF and the cheapest options market by volume; less efficient for buy-and-hold investors paying the higher expense ratio.
- Expense
- 0.40%
- AUM
- $153.51B
- Issuer
- State Street
- Detail
- GLD page →
Also in the category
Other funds scoring in this category. Same data, no editorial commentary yet.
Gold is taxed as a collectible
Long-term gains on physical-gold ETFs are taxed at the 28% federal collectibles rate, not the 0/15/20% long-term capital-gains rate that applies to equity funds. This is a meaningful drag — a 28% rate on a multi-decade gain compounds the way a higher fee would. The methodology page sets gold at a 35 base on tax efficiency for this reason. Holding in an IRA bypasses the collectibles rate entirely; gold in a taxable account is materially less efficient than gold in a Roth.
Why a passive-investing site even covers gold
Gold doesn't fit cleanly into the Boglehead three-fund framework — it produces no cash flow and has no intrinsic earnings model. The case for holding it is purely diversification: gold has historically moved differently from both stocks and bonds during inflation shocks and currency-confidence crises. Whether that diversification is worth the long-run drag in a typical accumulation portfolio is a personal-preference question with no methodology answer. Permanent Portfolio and Golden Butterfly hold 20–25% gold by design; most accumulation-phase 3-fund portfolios hold zero.
Guide. Picks come from the live PlainIndex composite for this category; editorial commentary on each pick is hand-written. Re-pulled with every catalog refresh.
PlainIndex publishes data and editorial commentary — nothing here is personalized investment advice. Read the methodology for how the scores referenced here are computed.