iShares Silver Trust Outperforms VanEck Gold Miners ETF

Silver (XAGUSD) has driven strong returns versus gold-miner equities, with the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) far outpacing the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) over the past year. The piece highlights that SLV provides direct exposure to physical silver (XAGUSD), while GDX is a basket of mining stocks subject to operational and equity-market risks. Key differentiators: nearly identical expense ratios (0.50% vs 0.51%), materially higher 1-year total return for SLV, larger AUM for the silver trust, and lower historical beta and slightly smaller max drawdown versus GDX. For investors, the takeaway is that exposure choice (physical metal vs miners) materially changes risk/return—silver’s price moves drive SLV directly, while GDX’s performance depends on miners’ execution and lagged sensitivity to metal prices. The comparison suggests investors seeking simpler, metal-price exposure would have benefited from silver (XAGUSD/SLV) recently, whereas those seeking leveraged equity upside should weigh GDX’s greater volatility and drawdown risks.