Four Precious Metals ETFs Your Broker Forgot To Tell You About

Alright, so today may not be the best day to extol the virtues of investing in precious metals as gold and silver have joined the broader market in the red, but the reality is gold's long-term uptrend remains in tact and silver has been a stout performer for several months now. In fact, this could prove to be an ideal time for investors to remember that there is more to investing in precious metals ETFs than just the SPDR Gold Shares GLD and the iShares Silver Trust SLV. Yep, there's a slew of precious metals ETFs out there that don't grab a lot of headlines, but these funds are still worth a look at a time when gold and silver are perhaps the safest bets from the long side. Here are some precious metals ETFs your broker probably forgot to tell you about. PowerShares DB Precious Metals Fund DBP: Unlike GLD or SLV, DBP does not offer exposure to physical holdings of any metal. Rather, this ETF tracks the DBIQ Optimum Yield Precious Metals Index Excess Return, a rules based index comprised of gold and silver futures contracts. The futures play results in a high expense ratio of 0.75%, but it is worth noting that DBP falls right in the middle of performance when compared to GLD and SLV over the past three months, beating the latter slightly while lagging the former by a small amount. FactorShares 2X Gold Bull/S&P 500 Bear FSG: Newly minted FSG, which debuted earlier this year, might be new and it might have high fees (it does at 0.75%), but it also might be the ideal way to play this current market environment. The new ETF is a a long play on gold futures and a short on the S&P 500 eMini contract and the daily return is generated through the difference between those two contracts. Simply put, if you think gold will continue its bullish ways and there's another lost decade in store for the S&P 500, FSG is your ETF. ETFS Physical Precious Metals Basket Shares GLTR: Considering that GLTR has done an admirable job of attracting assets (about $270.5 million) and that the ETF is backed by physical holdings of not one, but four precious metals, this fund surprisingly flies under the radar. GLTR is heavily weighted to gold, then silver with a palladium and platinum kicker. That means the ETF can be used as a safe haven play while making a small bet on riskier fare through platinum and palladium. On the downside, GLTR has lagged GLD over the last three months. Global X Gold Explorers ETF GLDX: GLDX made its debut in November 2010 and as gold miners have started to pick up their game in recent months, investors have started to take note of this unique Global X offering. With an expense ratio of 0.65%, GLDX has attracted $27.2 million in AUM, not a bad haul for less than a year on the block. What makes GLDX truly interesting is that on the surface it would appear to be an ETF that holds typical fare of the gold mining universe. In reality, the 28 stocks GLDX holds are anything but “typical” or “standard.” That might be why the ETF is up 12% in the past month.