SPDR Gold Trust

SPDR Gold Trust

SPDR Gold Trust (ticker: GLD) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2004, providing equity-market access to physical gold bullion for the first time. State Street Global Advisors serves as the sponsor, while HSBC acts as the custodian of the gold bars held in London. The trust's structure is a grantor trust, meaning shareholders own a fractional interest in a static pool of allocated gold bars, with each share representing approximately one-tenth of an ounce of gold. GLD tracks the London Bullion Market Association Gold Price PM and holds solely physical gold bullion. The trust does not invest in gold futures, mining equities, or other derivative instruments. Its physical holdings are stored as London Good Delivery bars in HSBC's London vault, and the bar list is published daily on the sponsor's website. The sponsor may sell gold to pay ongoing expenses, which translates to a 0.40% annual fee that incrementally reduces the fractional gold backing per share over time. The trust's gold holdings peaked above 1,300 metric tons in 2012 before central bank tightening cycles and rising real yields drove redemptions (per SEC filings). As of early 2024, GLD's vault held approximately 870 metric tons of gold with total net assets near $60 billion. The trust's creation and redemption mechanism relies on a limited circle of authorized participants — typically large bank trading desks — who deliver gold or cash in exchange for newly created baskets of shares. GLD's structure as a grantor trust creates a distinct tax treatment relative to conventional ETFs, with gains taxed as collectibles at a maximum 28% federal rate rather than the lower long-term capital gains rates applied to securities. This structural quirk matters more to taxable US investors than the trust's operational mechanics, yet it defines GLD as much as its vaulting arrangement. No other gold ETF had matched GLD's spot-liquidity footprint until the launch of iShares Gold Trust, and the competition between them remains the defining axis of the physical gold ETF market.