Over the past year, SLV posted about 138.9% gain versus IAU’s 73.0%, with five-year $1,000 growth illustrating SLV’s higher volatility and stronger near-term performance.

Two precious metals ETFs are compared: SLV tracks physical silver, while SGDM invests in a diversified basket of gold mining stocks, offering different routes to exposure.

Gold has surged through 2025 into early 2026 due to geopolitical and economic tensions, helping both funds capture gains as gold approached a near-doubling from early 2025 to mid-February 2026.

GLD shows significantly higher liquidity and lower beta (0.14) with about $175.7 billion AUM, compared with SLVP’s higher beta (0.79) and around $1.2 billion AUM.

Cost and size differ notably: SIL carries a 0.65% expense ratio with roughly $6.63 billion AUM, while AAAU offers a lower 0.18% expense ratio and about $3.13 billion AUM.

GDX offers broader diversification (55 holdings) and a lower expense ratio (0.51%) than SIL (0.65%), though SIL pays a higher dividend yield.

Longer-term growth over five years shows SGDM and AAAU delivering similar outcomes (roughly $2,667–$2,681 on the $1,000 initial investment), reflecting different underlying strategies.

Snapshot data shows SLV at 0.50% expense ratio, IAU at 0.25%, with SLV beta around 0.38 and IAU around 0.09, and AUM roughly $47.3 billion for SLV and $78.0 billion for IAU.

Volatility remains a caveat in precious metals, with silver showing higher volatility and a notable single-day drop of about 27% during the period.

Risk and return differ: SIL has higher one-year return but greater risk, including a five-year max drawdown near 56% and a beta near 0.78, versus AAAU’s lower risk profile.

Both SLV and SGDM carry similar expense ratios around 0.50%, with comparable one-year performance; SGDM has a smaller asset base but stronger near-term gains.

Expense ratios are broadly similar for SLVP and GLD, about 0.39% and 0.40% respectively, signaling tight cost competition.