VIDEO: ETF of the Week: GLDM

Chuck Jaffe: One fund, on point for today. and the expert to talk about it. Welcome to the ETF of the Week!

Yes, this is the ETF of the Week, where we get the latest take from Todd Rosenbluth, the head of research at VettaFi. And if you go to VettaFi.com, you’ll find the tools that you need to be a savvier, smarter ETF investor, and to get more details on the new, newsworthy, trending, and timely ETFs that we talk about here.

Your ETF of the Week is…

Todd Rosenbluth: The SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust, GLDM.

Chuck Jaffe: GLDM, SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust. Now, I have not necessarily many questions about gold itself, though there will be one or two. But I’ve got to start with: Why are you using the GLDM, the MiniShares, instead of just using the (GLD B), the SPDR Gold Shares?

Todd Rosenbluth: So, quite simply, Chuck, I’m cheap! And I think investors are relatively cheap and cost-conscious. So, GLDM offers you exposure to the spot gold marketplace, and it does so in a very liquid manner. And it does so for just ten basis points. So, that’s notably cheaper than GLD. So there’s a difference. They both — GLD, which is from State Street, and GLDM, also from State Street — offer you exposure to gold. The same gold.

But GLDM has a lower expense ratio, but trades a little bit less frequently. GLD has a higher expense ratio but trades more frequently, and as such, the trading costs tend to be lower. So if I, and probably many people that are listening to this or watching this — if they’re tracking the video — they’re not buying in bulk.

And as such, that liquidity, those tight spreads, matter less to them. And if their time horizon is relatively long, then that expense savings is going to add up.

Chuck Jaffe: The interesting thing, Todd, is that most of the time when I ask you about expense ratios, you’re like, “You know, I know that expenses are guaranteed, but it’s not your primary focus.” But in this case, what we’re really buying is literally a commodity. And that means that the funds that track it are commodities themselves, and that costs matter more with something like this, right?

Todd Rosenbluth: You’re right. So, I’ve been doing probably ten-plus years of commentary saying, “Go beyond the expense ratio, look inside the portfolio, make sure you know what you’re getting.” And that matters. In fact, last week we were talking about an international equity ETF that was fundamentally focused. And what was inside that international ETF was notably different than your market-cap-weighted products. And so fees matter to an extent. In fact, I don’t even think we talked about the fee of that ETF.

But when you’re buying an ETF where there are peers that offer you the same exposure, fees should be number one on that list. Or certainly number one, number two, and number three on that list. You might also want to know the firm that’s behind it. You want to make sure that there’s enough liquidity behind the product as well.

GLDM is from State Street. They have the other largest gold ETF. This ETF has $33 billion, as you and I were talking today. It’s seen strong inflows this year. Costs matter. And so if you’re looking for an allocation to gold, as many people are starting to do in their more broadly diversified portfolios, go with a low-cost, relatively low-cost product from GLDM.

Chuck Jaffe: And it’s not necessarily that the GLD is wildly expensive. That is not true. But basis points add up. And as I was prepping for this conversation, well, the GLDM, for example, in 2025 was up 64.2%, the GLD 63.68%. What makes up the difference? Mostly the expense ratio. 2024: 27.08% for GLDM, 26.66% for GLD. Again, the portfolio is basically identical.

The category that they’re in, no matter how you’re measuring it, is the same one. But that’s where the expenses come up. And even going back to 2022 when gold was down slightly, well, that’s the one case where — sorry, that case too — you had GLDM losing 0.47%, GLD losing 0.77%. So it shows up in all conditions.

You mentioned buying gold. And obviously, with the war on now in Iran, et cetera, you’ve got a lot of tensions going on, a lot of people turning towards hard assets. Do you worry at all about gold and where it is in the cycle? Because obviously up 65% last year, you know, trees don’t go to the sky!

Todd Rosenbluth: No, they don’t, but GLDM is up to start this year also, as you and I are talking. And so there is a value for gold. I don’t think I’m qualified to be able to tell you what a fair value is, but there continues to be demand for gold as a safe haven, and there continues to be demand for gold for jewelry and other purposes as well.

But what’s interesting to me is that for years, the last few years, we’ve been hearing people talk about bitcoin as an alternative and worthy of consideration. And I’ve talked about bitcoin and bitcoin ETFs to diversify your portfolio. But you know what? That old, long-established safe-haven diversifier of gold used through ETFs has been there for a long time.

It has worked for a long time. Investors have been rewarded for it. And I think—I hope—that the war ends soon, just because that seems like the right thing for everybody involved. And if it does, gold still can have a place within a portfolio as a diversifier. We were not at war the same way last year, and gold performed quite nicely because there’s still going to be market volatility.

That’s happening in equities and fixed income. And people are going to want a safe asset to turn to. Gold has been that for years.

Chuck Jaffe: And central banks are not going to stop their buying of gold. Central banks around the world have been loading up on gold. That’s created a lot of demand. That doesn’t look like it’s stopping either. So, that would do it again with gold. Two more questions on just portfolio construction. You want GLDM? Whether you were buying that or GLD, you would rather have physical gold than gold miners, or do you like — if somebody is going to make an allocation — do you recommend a little of each: miners and physical gold?

Todd Rosenbluth: So I believe we’ve talked about gold mining ETFs in the past for an ETF of the Week. We shouldn’t be talking about bitcoin mining as opposed to just bitcoin exposure. So with gold mining, you have exposure to the equity marketplace. These are the companies that are going to benefit from greater demand and see their profitability go up as the price of gold goes up.

But you are getting exposure to the equity marketplace. So you probably have very little exposure to gold mining because gold mining companies mostly are not based in the United States. And so if you own the S&P 500, you don’t have a lot of exposure to materials in general, and certainly not gold companies in particular. So, it can have a place in the portfolio and work as well with a gold ETF like GLDM.

But these are two different investments. And I think you want to own them for different reasons. In both cases, you want the price of gold to go up. But one is a safer investment. GLDM is a safer investment than what you would find with an ETF like a gold mining one. So you can have both, but for different reasons.

Chuck Jaffe: And how much of a portfolio typically do you let something commodity-focused like this be? We recognize that people want to have it in the portfolio, but do you have a general range that you’re comfortable with when somebody makes an allocation this way?

Todd Rosenbluth: So we’ve been talking at the Exchange conference with the folks from State Street Global Advisors, because they’re the firm that’s behind this. I’m going to actually be talking with them on stage. And I know they believe this, and I agree with it: We’re seeing many investors move away from a traditional 60/40 portfolio — 60% equity, 40% fixed income — to having a slice of alternatives. Whether it’s a “risk-on” environment, so you might have more than that, that might come out of your fixed income exposure…

Or if you’re in a “risk-off” mindset, then you might want to boost not just fixed income exposure with alternatives. And gold, or commodities in general, can play a meaningful part of that portfolio.

So I think it’s reasonable for people who are looking towards gold and gold ETFs to have close to 5% of their portfolio in gold, so it acts differently than the rest of the portfolio, and then round that out with some other alternatives if they want something that’s not just the S&P 500 and the Bloomberg Agg.

Chuck Jaffe: It’s GLDM, SPDR Gold MiniShares, the ETF of the Week from Todd Rosenbluth and VettaFi.

Todd Rosenbluth: Thanks a lot. Talk to you next time!

Chuck Jaffe: The ETF of the Week is a joint production of VettaFi and Money Life with Chuck Jaffe. I’m Chuck Jaffe. And if you want to check out what I’m doing the rest of the time, go to MoneyLifeShow.com or search for my show, Money Life, on your favorite podcast app.

If you want to get more information on the ETFs we discuss here or the ones in your portfolio, no better place to do that than VettaFi.com, where they’ve got a full suite of tools that will help you out. They’re on X @Vetta_Fi. Todd Rosenbluth, my guest here on ETF of the Week, their head of research, he’s on X as well; he’s @ToddRosenbluth.

The ETF of the Week is here for you every Thursday. Lock us in so you don’t miss an episode by subscribing or following along on your favorite podcast app. And we’ll be back with another ETF for you to consider next week. Until then, happy investing, everybody!

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