Sign of a top? GLD Moves Into Top Spot, Surpasses SPY As Biggest ETF - Focus on Funds

GLD Moves Into Top Spot, Surpasses SPY As Biggest ETF

Is $5,000/Ounce The New Target In Gold’s Run?MKM: Buy Silver ETF (14% Upside); Pair Utilities With October Calls

By Murray Coleman

Here’s another rather stark sign of our times:

– The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) on Friday moved past the grand-daddy of all ETFs, the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), as the leader in overall assets.

According to data provided by State Street’s (STT) Global Advisors ETF unit today, here’s a breakdown of assets as of Friday’s close:

GLD: $76.67 billion

SPY: $74.38 billion

But something to keep in mind about these very fluid numbers:

SPY over the past several months has been averaging more than 200 million shares traded a day.

GLD’s average volume is slightly more than 18.3 million a day.

Also, SPY entered today’s session with a return of -9.6% on the year. Meanwhile, GLD’s net asset value was ahead by nearly 31% so far in 2011.

On Monday, SPY had most recently gained 0.5%. The gold ETF was up 2.3% on the day.