After tremendous price gains in 2025, gold and silver prices have so far in 2026 moved sideways, with continued significant volatility. This chart shows the year-to-date value changes for the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD).
This type of sideways price action makes option strategy ETFs attractive. Investors earn attractive distribution yields, and will participate in the gains if and when gold and silver make their next moves higher.
XFunds by Nicholas Wealth recently launched a pair of precious metals funds that offer unique features for this type of ETF. The ETFs are:
● Nicholas Gold Income Fund (GLDN), which launched on February 17, 2026, and yields 15%.
● Nicholas Silver Income Fund (SLVX), which launched on the same day, sports a 24% distribution rate.
Compared to other precious metals covered call ETFs, the Nicholas funds use a mixed-strategy approach to their holdings. By this, I mean the funds own metal-tracking ETFs as part of their holdings, and hold shares of mining stocks for a portion of the holdings.
For example, the SLVX portfolio has 47.5% in the abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR), with the remainder in shares of silver mining companies. GLDN has 48.7% of its portfolio in the SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust ETF (GLDM).
Metal mining stocks can add extra gains to a portfolio when commodity prices rise. Mining companies, with relatively fixed production costs, leverage any gains in the value of the metals they produce.
These two ETFs are too new to make a meaningful comparison with existing gold- and silver-covered call ETFs. I will monitor them to see whether their returns deliver superior results. My ETF Income Edge service offers this type of investment guidance to subscribers.
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