Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF Outperforming SPDR Gold Trust

The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF GDX was up 2.03 percent Friday morning, while the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) GLD lagged, up 1.66 percent.

Traders may want to take note of the disparity between ETFs which hold gold stocks versus physical gold.

While GDX outperformed GLD after Friday’s open, over a longer time frame the numbers tell a different story. Over the past year, GLD is down 1.77 percent, while GDX is down 13.82 percent.

GLD largely reflects the performance of gold; GDX reflects the performance of the stocks it holds and how well those companies are managed as gold producers.

For example, Goldcorp Inc. (USA) GG is one of GDX’s top holdings and it is down approximately 16 percent year-to-date.

Physical gold was down 1.53 percent over the past year and this is reflected in GLD’s performance.

GDX recently traded at $18.12, up 1.9 percent.

GLD recently traded at $114.68, up 1.7 percent.