I keep seeing GLD being recommended over IAU

[lordmetroid]

All over the Internet, even in this forum, GLD is constantly being posted as the go to ETF for your gold. IAU seems to me a much better deal with the lover fee of 0.25% vs 0.40%.

Isn't it more prudent to purchase IAU for the long term?

[ozzy]

I've been using IAU for years, its fine in my opinion.

Warning – get ready for a deluge of gold bugs telling you to only own physical. 

[Tyler]

Active traders like GLD for the very high trading volumes and the fact that one share is 1/10th the price of a 1oz gold coin vs. 1/100 for IAU (saving money on bid/ask spreads).  For a buy-and-hold investor, IAU is generally the better deal based on the ER.

[dutchtraffic]

The GLD etf is a claim on thin air, you can not even exchange it for gold, when the system is in trouble (pretty much the only reason to hold gold), you just lost everything.

You must be out of your mind to own a (paper!) gold etf loaded with counterparty risk

ps: there are etfs without counterparty risk, ZKB has one and i think there's at least 1 more.

[atrus138]

You must be out of your mind to own a (paper!) gold etf loaded with counterparty risk

ps: there are etfs without counterparty risk, ZKB has one and i think there's at least 1 more.

Newbie question: What do you mean by counterparty risk? Most of my gold is in SGOL, which is backed by physical bullion in Switzerland.

[dutchtraffic]

You must be out of your mind to own a (paper!) gold etf loaded with counterparty risk

ps: there are etfs without counterparty risk, ZKB has one and i think there's at least 1 more.

Newbie question: What do you mean by counterparty risk? Most of my gold is in SGOL, which is backed by physical bullion in Switzerland.

Worst case of counterparty risk is the etf issuer going bust and you losing everything.

And an etf being "backed by physical" does not have to mean you are safe at all, you need to read the small letters to be sure

[KevinW]

I like IAU better than GLD, too.

GLD came first so it has the benefit of greater notoriety and assets under management.

[l82start]

isn't the main issue not with iau itself, but that iau is managed by the same company as a couple other popular (and harder to find alternatives for) PP etf's. and you end up with a "to many eggs in one basket" problem if you hold iau as well?

[Dieter]

isn't the main issue not with iau itself, but that iau is managed by the same company as a couple other popular (and harder to find alternatives for) PP etf's. and you end up with a "to many eggs in one basket" problem if you hold iau as well?

Yup - TLT and IAU both from iShares. I use VUSTX (VGLT is ETF), which I know is short for LTT, but.... I use IAU for my gold.

[buddtholomew]

A little off topic, but has anyone successfully (avoided wash sale rule) tax-loss harvested GLD and re-purchased either GLD again or IAU? I understand the wash sale rule does not apply to collectibles and GLD is considered a collectible taxed at that rate.

[ochotona]

Maybe you could sell a gold ETF, move into GLTR for 31 days, and move back. GLTR is 68% gold, and the rest silver, platinum, palladium. The IRS would not consider GLTR to be the same type of asset as IAU / GLD / SGOL or physical.

[Xan]

Physical is not the same as any ETF.  GLD and IAU might be considered equivalent, but GLD/IAU is not the same as PHYS or GTU.

And we do know that the wash sale rule doesn't apply to collectibles.  Really the reason to exchange one ETF for another rather than just buying is so that your broker's wash sale detector doesn't fire, and you end up out of sync with what they think your cost basis is.

Also, now that I think of it, it's likely that you'd be buying your replacement ETF with money that hasn't settled from the sale of your original ETF.  If you're buying the same ETF again, I think that's technically against SEC rules.

[buddtholomew]

Physical is not the same as any ETF.  GLD and IAU might be considered equivalent, but GLD/IAU is not the same as PHYS or GTU.

And we do know that the wash sale rule doesn't apply to collectibles.  Really the reason to exchange one ETF for another rather than just buying is so that your broker's wash sale detector doesn't fire, and you end up out of sync with what they think your cost basis is.

Also, now that I think of it, it's likely that you'd be buying your replacement ETF with money that hasn't settled from the sale of your original ETF.  If you're buying the same ETF again, I think that's technically against SEC rules.

Concerned VG would automatically flag as a wash sale as the sell/buy will have the same CUSIP.

You can always buy from cash and not wait for the funds to settle from the original sale.

[buddtholomew]

Maybe you could sell a gold ETF, move into GLTR for 31 days, and move back. GLTR is 68% gold, and the rest silver, platinum, palladium. The IRS would not consider GLTR to be the same type of asset as IAU / GLD / SGOL or physical.

Are there any unique forms that investors are required to file at tax time? Its annoying when using turbo-tax and e-file to have to supply additional information not supported inherently by the application.