iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

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Recent Street.com Rating (October 31, 2009 at $102.67)

SUMMARY
We rate iShares COMEX Gold Trust at A+. This overall rating indicates it is among the top 10% of all closed end mutual funds in its peer group. Positive factors that influence this rating include a well above average total return, low price volatility and low expense structure. The fund may be considered for investors seeking a Sector - Precious Metals strategy.

POSITIVES AND RISKS
Total return ranks very high in comparison with peers over the last three years. The iShares COMEX Gold Trust has returned an annual rate of 20.29% since inception. More recently, thefund has generated a total return of 18.06% in the last three years, 43.43% in the last year, and 17.93% in the last six months. How does that compare to other equity funds? In the last three years, it has outperformed 99% of them. It has also outpaced 73% of its competitors on a one year basis for the period ending 10/31/2009. On a year to date basis, IAU has returned 18.47%.

Downside risk has been below average. IAU has a draw down risk of -25.72%, which is the largest price decline experienced over the last three years. This fund has a three year standard deviation of 20.9. This fund has experienced a high level of volatility in its monthly performance over the last 36 months. As of 10/31/2009, the fund was trading at a price of $102.67, which is 2.0% below its 52-week high of $104.76 and 5.0% above its 52-week low of $97.82.

Low expense ratio helps performance. On total assets of $2.05 billion, IAU maintains a low expense ratio compared to its Sector - Precious Metals peers of just 0.40% to cover all operating costs. Brokerage costs for the fund to buy and sell shares are not included in the expense ratio. As IAU is an exchange traded fund, it has no front end or back end load.

The iShares COMEX Gold Trust is managed by Index Strategies Group at BGFA. This fund is one of 196 BGFA exchange-traded funds launched since 3/12/1996 that we track.