SPDR Gold Trust

The SPDR Gold Trust, ticker symbol GLD, is an investment fund that was created in 2004 to track the performance of the price of gold bullion, minus the trust’s expenses. The trust holds physical gold and issues shares in 100,000 blocks called baskets in exchange for gold deposits and distributes gold in connection with redemptions of baskets.

The SPDR Gold Trust was the first gold ETF and came about to solve the problems investors face when entering the gold market. The selling, buying, moving, storing, security, and insurance of gold can cause more headaches and hassles for investors than one might first think and GLD has provided an elegant answer for many investors and traders.

Like all ETFs, the SPDR Gold Trust can be bought and sold like a stock and all the things that can be done with stocks can be done with the Trust. This includes stop orders, limit orders, market orders, margin purchases, options, and short sales.

World Gold Trust Services, LLC is the sponsor of the SPDR Gold Trust. BNY Mellon Asset
Servicing, a division of The Bank of New York Mellon, is the trustee of the Trust, HSBC Bank USA, is the custodian of the gold, and State Street Global Markets, LLC is the marketing agent of the Trust.

One interesting bit of trivia about GLD is that “SPDR” is a registered trademark of Standard and Poor’s Financial Services LLC, and is licensed for use by the SPDR Gold Trust.