USERX Has Outpaced Its Gold ETF Peers, Year-to-Date

After a four-year bear market, investors in the gold space – particularly in mining – have witnessed the asset class get clobbered. Despite significant losses witnessed across passive ETFs that hold physical gold, the U.S. Global Investors Gold and Precious Metals Fund (USERX) has managed to weather the storm well, up 2 percent year-to-date, through October 13, 2015.

Portfolio manager of USERX Ralph Aldis, who was voted into the American Society of Top Gun Investment Minds earlier this year by Brendan Wood International, explains to Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) why active management has allowed his fund to outshine its passive ETF peers. Aldis says that USERX aims to deliver alpha to investors unlike ETFs offering plain beta exposure. He looks for names that he believes will outperform regardless of gold prices.

With the probability of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve getting pushed back further, however, it looks like gold may have reached its bottom.

Read the full article on IBD to see why a buying opportunity in precious metals could be found in Aldis’ actively-managed fund, USERX.

Click here to learn about the Gold and Precious Metals Fund.

Please consider carefully a fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. For this and other important information, obtain a fund prospectus by visiting www.usfunds.com or by calling 1-800-US-FUNDS (1-800-873-8637). Read it carefully before investing. Distributed by U.S. Global Brokerage, Inc.

Expense ratios as stated in the most recent prospectus. The expense cap is a voluntary limit on total fund operating expenses (exclusive of any acquired fund fees and expenses, performance fees, extraordinary expenses, taxes, brokerage commissions and interest) that U.S. Global Investors, Inc. can modify or terminate at any time, which may lower a fund’s yield or return. Performance data quoted above is historical. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Results reflect the reinvestment of dividends and other earnings. For a portion of periods, the fund had expense limitations, without which returns would have been lower. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance data quoted. The principal value and investment return of an investment will fluctuate so that your shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Performance does not include the effect of any direct fees described in the fund’s prospectus (e.g., short-term trading fees of 0.05%) which, if applicable, would lower your total returns. Performance quoted for periods of one year or less is cumulative and not annualized. Obtain performance data current to the most recent month-end at www.usfunds.com or 1-800-US-FUNDS.

For information regarding the investment objectives, strategies, liquidity, risks, expenses and fees of the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF, SPDR Gold Shares ETF, or the Powershares Global Gold & Precious Metals Portfolio please refer to those funds’ prospectuses.

Investment Objective: The Gold and Precious Metals Fund is an actively managed mutual fund that focuses on gold and precious metals producing companies. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF is a passively managed fund that seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. The investment objective of the SPDR Gold Trust is for the shares to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the expenses of the Trust’s operations. The PowerShares Global Gold & Precious Metals ETF is a passively managed fund that seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expense, the price and yield performance of the NASDAQ OMX Global Gold and Precious Metals Index.

Liquidity: The Gold and Precious Metals Fund can be purchased or sold at a net asset value (NAV) determined at the end of each trading day. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF, SPDR Gold Shares ETF and Powershares Global Gold & Precious Metals Portfolio can be purchased or sold intraday. These purchases and redemptions may generate brokerage commissions and other charges not reflected in the ETF’s published expense ratio.

Safety/Fluctuations of principal/return: Loss of money is a risk of investing in the Gold and Precious Metals Fund, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF, the SPDR Gold Shares ETF and the Powershares Global Gold & Precious Metals Portfolio. Shares of all of these securities are subject to sudden fluctuations in value.

Tax features: The Gold and Precious Metals Fund may make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains. Mutual funds are pass-through entities, so the shareholder is responsible for taxes due on distributions.

The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF and the Powershares Global Gold & Precious Metals Portfolio may make distributions that are expected to be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains. However, ETFs are designed to minimize taxable distributions to shareholders. Shareholders of the SPDR Gold Trust will generally be treated as if they directly owned a pro rata share of the underlying assets held in the Trust. Shareholders also will be treated as if they directly received their respective pro rata shares of the Trust’s income and proceeds, and directly incurred their pro rata share of the Trust’s expenses.

The sale of shares of both mutual funds and ETFs may be subject to capital gains taxes by the shareholder.

Information provided here is neither tax nor legal advice and is general in nature. Federal and state laws and regulations are subject to change.

NASDAQ OMX Global Gold and Precious Metals Index is designed to measure the overall performance of the most liquid, globally traded companies involved in gold and other precious metals mining-related activities.

The NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index is a modified market capitalization weighted index comprised of publicly traded companies involved primarily in the mining for gold and silver.  The index benchmark value was 500.0 at the close of trading on December 20, 2002.

Gold, precious metals, and precious minerals funds may be susceptible to adverse economic, political or regulatory developments due to concentrating in a single theme. The prices of gold, precious metals, and precious minerals are subject to substantial price fluctuations over short periods of time and may be affected by unpredicted international monetary and political policies. We suggest investing no more than 5% to 10% of your portfolio in these sectors.

Fund portfolios are actively managed, and holdings may change daily. Holdings are reported as of the most recent quarter-end. Holdings in the Gold and Precious Metals Fund as a percentage of net assets as of 09/30/2015: Barrick Gold Corp 0.00%, Klondex Mines Ltd 16.91%, Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF 0.00%, Newmont Mining Corp 0.85%, Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd 6.23%, Powershares Global Gold & Precious Metals ETF 0.00%, SPDR Gold Shares ETF 0.00%, St Barbara Ltd 4.70%.

All opinions expressed and data provided are subject to change without notice. Some of these opinions may not be appropriate to every investor. By clicking the link above, you will be directed to a third-party website. U.S. Global Investors does not endorse all information supplied by this website and is not responsible for its content.

Alpha is a measure of performance on a risk-adjusted basis. Alpha takes the volatility (price risk) of a mutual fund and compares its risk-adjusted performance to a benchmark index. The excess return of the fund relative to the return of the benchmark index is a fund’s alpha.

Beta is a measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole.