Just been looking into gold ETFs lately since gold keeps bouncing around near record highs. Figured I'd share what I found for anyone curious about getting into the precious metal without the hassle of storing actual bars.

Started with Graniteshares (BAR) - it's got this thing where they actually hold physical gold in vaults and audit it twice a year, so you know it's legit. The fee is super low at 0.18%, and they've returned about 8% over five years. Pretty solid if you want real gold backing your investment.

Then there's SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), which is basically the heavyweight - holds like $59 billion in actual gold bullion. The expense ratio is a bit higher at 0.40%, but honestly still reasonable. Same 8% return roughly, and it's been tracking pretty close to gold's all-time highs lately.

But if you're all about keeping costs down, iShares Gold Trust Micro (IAUM) is kind of wild - only 0.09% expense ratio, which is genuinely the lowest I've seen for a physical gold ETF. Holds nearly a billion in physical gold too. Only thing is it's pretty new (started in 2021), so no long track record yet. But since it just tracks spot gold prices, you'd expect similar performance to the others anyway.

Honestly with all the economic uncertainty floating around, having some gold exposure makes sense. These USA-based gold ETF options give you easy exposure without the complications. Which one you leaning towards?