SPDR Gold Shares (also known as SPDR Gold Trust) is part of the

SPDR SPDR funds (pronounced "spider") are a family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) traded in the United States, Europe, Mexico and Asia-Pacific and managed by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). Informally, they are also known as Spyders or Spiders. ...

family of

exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...

s (ETFs) managed and marketed by State Street Global Advisors. For a few years, the fund was the second-largest exchange-traded fund in the world, and it was briefly the largest. As of the close of 2014, it dropped out of the top ten. This ETF denotes a fixed amount of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from ...

, unlike many ETFs which represent ownership in a basket of stocks. SPDR Gold Shares are designed to initially track the price of a tenth of a troy ounce of gold. If the share price differs from the gold market price, the fund's manager exchanges blocks of 100,000 shares for 10,000 ounces of gold. The possibility of such exchanges keeps the ETF price roughly in line with the gold price, although the prices can diverge during each day. As of March 31, 2019, the trust had 24,572,554.8 ounces of vaulted gold in its custody, representing an asset value of $31,697,578,486.50. SPDR Gold Shares is one of the top ten largest holders of gold in the world.

History

In November 2004, the fund was listed (under the name streetTRACKS Gold Shares) on the New York Stock Exchange by State Street Global Advisors with

World Gold Council The World Gold Council is an international trade association for the gold industry. It is headquartered in London and has offices in India, China, Singapore, the UAE and the United States. The organization's members are gold mining companies. ...

sponsorship. Since 13 December 2007 and following a name change on 20 May 2008, SPDR Gold Shares has traded on NYSE Arca (). It also trades on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (), Singapore Stock Exchange ( SGX:GLD 10US$), and Tokyo Stock Exchange (). In June 2018, State Street started the Gold MiniShares () Trust with a lower expense ratio of 0.18% and a lower NAV at one-hundredth the price of an ounce of gold.

Competitors

SPDR Gold Shares competes with iShares Gold Trust (). There is also iShares Silver Trust ().

Management

The Trust’s gold bullion is stored as London Good Delivery

gold bar A gold bar, also known as gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold that can be shaped in various forms, produced under standardized conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record-keeping. Larger varieties of gold ...

s (400 oz.) and held in their vault in London or by several custodians worldwide. The ETF pays an expense charge of 0.40% per annum.

History

Competitors

Management

See also

References

External links