As gold prices continue to find a trajectory towards a new record price, other investment products related to the precious metal are also struggling. For instance, popular U.S. gold exchange-traded funds have registered negative returns in 2021.
According to data acquired by Finbold, the top seven gold ETFs in the U.S. by the highest average daily trading volume have returned an average of -7.41% on a year-to-date basis as of October 18. SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), with 7.2 million daily traded shares, has the highest negative returns at 7.54%. Elsewhere, iShares Gold Trust (IAU), with the highest daily traded shares at 8.6 million among the selected ETFs, has returns of -7.24%.
Aberdeen Standard Physical GoldShares ETF (SGOL) has returns of -7.39, while GraniteShares Gold Shares (BAR) has registered an ROI of -7.36%. Elsewhere, SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust (GLDM) has returns of -7.44%. Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF(AAAU) has a -7.34% return on investment.
ETF returns correlates with gold struggling prices
The report partly attributes the negative ETF returns to the struggling gold prices. According to the research report:
“Notably, since hitting an all-time high price of above $2000 in August 2021, the price of gold has been struggling to hit a new high, partly contributing to the negative returns. In contrast, most analysts expected gold to find support from higher inflation, currency debasement, structural changes to asset allocation. The precious metal is also projected to find support in a possible high-interest environment.”
Furthermore, the dwindling gold ETF returns might directly be an impact of emerging possible alternatives to the precious metal. Bitcoin has highly been considered as an alternative to gold that can serve as a store of value.
Source: Finbold.com
