Precious Metals Plays: GDX Offers Broader Exposure and Less Volatility Than SLVP

4 weeks ago 17

Sarah Sidlow, The Motley Fool

Sat, December 27, 2025 astatine 6:55 AM CST 5 min read

SLVP posted a higher 1-year instrumentality than GDX but with a smaller assets nether absorption (AUM) and somewhat higher volatility.
GDX is overmuch larger, much liquid, and holds a broader handbasket of golden miners, portion SLVP focuses connected metallic and metals companies.
Both funds are concentrated successful basal materials but disagree successful their apical holdings and commodity exposure.
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Both iShares MSCI Global Silver and Metals Miners ETF (NYSEMKT:SLVP) and VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSEMKT:GDX) connection vulnerability to precious metals miners, but their approaches and portfolios acceptable them apart. SLVP is simply a narrower, silver-centric exchange-traded money (ETF), portion GDX provides broader entree to planetary golden miners. This examination looks astatine cost, performance, risk, portfolio makeup, and trading details to assistance investors spot which whitethorn amended acceptable their objectives.

Metric

SLVP

GDX

Issuer	IShares	VanEck
Expense ratio	0.39%	0.51%
1-yr instrumentality (as of Dec. 16, 2025)	158.6%	132.9%
Dividend yield	0.4%	0.5%
Beta	1.11	0.87
AUM	$816.5 million	$27.01 billion

Beta measures terms volatility comparative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year play returns. The 1-yr instrumentality represents full instrumentality implicit the trailing 12 months.

Metric

SLVP

GDX

Max drawdown (5 y)	(56.22%)	(46.52%)
Growth of $1,000 implicit 5 years	$2,208	$2,555

GDX is built for investors seeking vulnerability to planetary golden mining companies. It tracks a wide scale of 55 holdings, including Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, Newmont Corp, and Barrick Mining Corp, with its full portfolio successful basal materials. The fund’s astir 20-year past and ample assets nether absorption (AUM) assistance enactment precocious liquidity and choky trading spreads.

SLVP, by contrast, holds 41 companies and leans heavy into metallic and diversified metals miners, with basal materials making up 88% of assets. Its largest positions are Hecla Mining, Indust Penoles, and Fresnillo Plc. It is smaller and much concentrated, and offers a somewhat antithetic metals vulnerability profile.

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The VanEck Gold Miners ETF stands retired for its broader portfolio and larger assets nether absorption -- much than 33 times the assets of the iShares Silver and Metals Miners ETF. Its beta of 0.87 is besides notable. Beta measures a stock's volatility comparative to the market, usually utilizing the S&P 500 arsenic a benchmark. GDX's beta nether 1 means the ETF is little volatile than the wide market. This is often an statement for investing successful the precious metals space, peculiarly gold, which is inactive considered a modular store of value. With the marketplace being propelled higher by breathtaking tech stories successful the past fewer years, and expanding economical and marketplace uncertainty, parking immoderate of your wealth successful gold-related investments could beryllium to beryllium a utile hedge against large swings.