4 Best Gold ETFs to Hedge Against Stock Volatility (January 2026)
Gold ETFs can help diversify your portfolio and hedge against down markets.
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Heads up → Gold is surging to new highs as volatility and uncertainty grip global financial markets. At the end of Dec. 2025, spot gold was around $4,300 per ounce. By Wednesday, Jan. 28, it had jumped over $1,000 to around $5,300 — about 18%. For perspective, the S&P 500 has risen a little over 1% in the same period. In the last year, the S&P 500 has risen about 15%. You can use this as a benchmark to compare against the staggering gains in the gold ETFs listed below.
Below is our complete list of best-performing gold ETFs. We exclude gold exchange-traded notes and leveraged gold ETFs, which may come with added risk or fees.
Best-performing gold ETFs
» Want to add these to your portfolio? See our list of the best brokers for ETF investing. These investment platforms offer a strong selection of tools for building a diversified portfolio, and our list only includes brokers that don't charge commissions for ETF trades.
Today's gold price is $5,262.30 per ounce. The best performing gold ETF by one-year return is GLDM, which is up 91.79% in the past year, but the fund with the lowest expense ratio is IAUM. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Ticker | Company | Performance (Year) | Net Expense Ratio |
GLDM | SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust | 91.79% | 0.10% |
SGOL | abrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF | 91.67% | 0.17% |
BAR | GraniteShares Gold Shares | 91.57% | 0.17% |
AAAU | Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF | 91.55% | 0.18% |
Source: Finviz & Kitco. Data current as of January 28, 2026. | |||
What are gold ETFs?
Gold ETFs are exchange-traded funds that give investors exposure to gold without having to directly purchase, store and resell the precious metal. Some gold ETFs track the price of gold, while others invest in companies in the gold-mining industry.
As with other types of ETFs, the issuing company buys stock in gold-related companies or purchases and stores gold bullion itself. Investors buy shares in the fund, whose value rises and falls with the underlying gold price or company stock value.
» MORE: 4 more ways to invest in gold
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How to invest in gold ETFs
Here’s how to buy shares in a gold ETF:
Step 1: Find a gold ETF
You can typically find gold ETFs by searching for them on your broker's website. (No broker? Here's how to open a brokerage account.)
Step 2: Analyze the ETF
It's important to research ETFs before buying, just as you'd research stocks. Two things to check before purchasing shares in a gold ETF:
Five-year returns. Most (but not all) gold ETFs are pegged to spot gold price, so returns should align with gold price moves.
Expense ratio. This is the ETF's annual fee, paid out of your investment in the fund. Look for a low one.
And two important notes: The average investor may want to exercise caution around buying leveraged gold ETFs — these use financial derivatives and borrowed money to make bets on future price movements. Another asset to be cautious about is gold exchange-traded notes. ETNs are secured debt obligations that don’t actually own the underlying gold (unlike ETFs) and have a greater risk of credit default.
These investments are more for professional investors and generally not suitable for the buy-and-hold strategy favored by many retirement investors.
Step 3: Buy the gold ETF
You can buy ETFs through an online broker just like you’d buy a stock. One approach is to buy them regularly to take advantage of dollar-cost averaging.
» Ready to invest? See our list of the best brokers for ETF investing.
Learn more about sector ETFs:
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Understand S&P 500 ETFs
Invest abroad? Check out China ETFs
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