Gold Miners or Silver Bars? We Compare VanEck Gold Miners ETF to iShares Silver Trust to Find the Better Buy
GDX delivered $2,339 on a $1,000 investment versus SLV's $2,196, despite facing lower volatility than its silver counterpart.
Overview
The choice between iShares Silver Trust (NYSEMKT:SLV) and VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSEMKT:GDX) depends on whether an investor seeks direct exposure to physical silver prices or equity-based exposure to gold mining companies.
While both funds serve as popular hedges within the precious metals sector, they operate on fundamentally different mechanics. The iShares trust tracks the spot price of the metal by holding physical bullion, whereas the VanEck fund provides indirect exposure by investing in a diversified basket of global mining companies that often exhibit higher volatility than the underlying metal.
Details
Beta measures price volatility relative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year monthly returns. The 1-yr return represents total return over the trailing 12 months. Dividend yield is the trailing-12-month distribution yield as of the close of July 15 trading.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.