ETFA: GLD is the big gorilla in the gold ETF space. How does your SGOL fund differ?
Dunn: When people think gold, they think GLD. The founder of our firm, Graham Tuckwell, launched the world’s first gold ETP in 2003 in Australia, but unfortunately not in the U.S., where we were third to market behind GLD (SPDR Gold Shares) and IAU (iShares Gold Trust). At the end of the day, do these structures all basically work the same? Yes. We believe we put some stops in to protect our shareholders. We store our gold in Switzerland. Having it vaulted somewhere other than the U.S. provides some folks with a perception of safety—people have told us they specifically sought out our products for that reason.
ETFA: Do you believe the current rally in precious metals is sustainable?
Dunn: You’ve seen a surge in the early part of this year, with strong fundamentals across the board. In some of those metals it’s a supply-and-demand game, where there’s more demand and not enough supply coming on board.