Gold Mutual Funds – Expense Ratios and Minimum Investments

Gold is a popular hedge against stock market and dollar declines and there are several ways in which you can invest in gold.

A popular way of investing in gold is through gold ETFs and gold mutual funds. Even if you don’t believe the dollar is going to decline or need a hedge against the stock markets, you may still be interested in gold, and this gold mutual fund list can prove useful.

Here is a compilation of a few leading Gold Mutual Funds and Gold ETFs along with their:

  • Expense Ratio
  • Front Load (In case of Mutual Funds)
  • Minimum Investment (In case of Mutual Funds)
S. No. Name Ticker Expense Ratio Front Load Min Investment Category
1 SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD 0.4% NA NA ETF
2 iShares COMEX Gold Trust IAU 0.4% NA NA ETF
3 Market Vectors TR Gold Miners GDX 0.55% NA NA ETF
4 Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining VGPMX 0.28% None 10000 Gold Mutual Fund
5 US Global Investors World Prec Minerals UNWPX 0.97% None 5000 Gold Mutual Fund
6 U.S. Gbl Inv Gold and Precious Metals USERX 1.27% None 5000 Gold Mutual Fund
7 USAA Precious Metals and Minerals USAGX 1.19% None 3000 Gold Mutual Fund
8 Tocqueville Gold TGDLX 1.43% None 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
9 Rydex Precious Metals Inv RYPMX 1.27% None 2500 Gold Mutual Fund
10 ProFunds Short Precious Metals Inv SPPIX 1.55% None 15000 Gold Mutual Fund
11 ProFunds Precious Metals UltraSector Inv PMPIX 1.46% None 15000 Gold Mutual Fund
12 Oppenheimer Gold & Special Minerals A OPSGX 1.05% 5.75% 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
13 OCM Gold OCMGX 1.93% 4.5% 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
14 Midas MIDSX 1.87% None 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
15 Jennison Natural Resources A PGNAX 1.14% 5.5% 2500 Gold Mutual Fund
16 ING Global Natural Resources A LEXMX 1.45% 5.75% 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
17 GAMCO Gold AAA GOLDX 1.46% None 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
18 Franklin Gold and Precious Metals A FKRX 0.89% 5.75% 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
19 First Eagle Gold A SGGDX 1.21% 5% 2500 Gold Mutual Fund
20 Fidelity Select Gold FSAGX 0.81% None 2500 Gold Mutual Fund
21 Evergreen Precious Metals A EKWAX 1.05% 5.75% 1000 Gold Mutual Fund
22 DWS Gold & Precious Metals S SCGDX 1.2% None 2500 Gold Mutual Fund
23 RiverSource Precious Metals & Mining A INPMX 1.34% 5.75% 2000 Gold Mutual Fund
24 American Century Global Gold Inv BGEIX 0.68% None 2500 Gold Mutual Fund

12 thoughts on “Gold Mutual Funds – Expense Ratios and Minimum Investments”

  1. I am interested to invest my money in the gold, but when i came to know that the to invest in the gold the procedure is like this
    1)Invest in the gold funds
    2)Invest in the gold ETF
    3)Invest in the gold PMF
    i was little bit confused whether which fund is better one to invest my money suggest the best one and give the reason for suggesting the particular fund.

    1. In mutual funds, in general there is a minimum limit of say $1000 to get into a mutual fund, but you can buy ETFs with very little money.

      Other than that some gold mutual funds hold mining stocks, some ETFs hold future contracts and some hold physical gold. So, you need to know what type of fund you are interested in.

      Third aspect is cost, a lower expense ratio is better, so compare the costs between the same type of fund you are interested in.

      Here are some links for further reading:

      http://www.onemint.com/2008/11/07/what-is-the-difference-between-an-etf-and-an-index-fund/
      http://www.onemint.com/2009/06/01/list-of-gold-etfs/
      http://www.onemint.com/2009/04/13/different-types-of-commodity-funds/

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