Free Writing Prospectus
Filed Pursuant to Rule 433
Registration No. 333-167807
July 8, 2010
iShares COMEX® Gold Trust
Trust Description
The iShares COMEX Gold Trust (“Trust”) seeks to correspond generally to the day-to-day movement of the price of gold bullion. The objective of the Trust is for the value to reflect, at any given time, the price of gold owned by the Trust at that time, less the expenses and liabilities of the Trust.
Backed by Physical Gold
The shares are backed by gold, identified on the custodians’ books as property of the Trust and held by the custodians in vaults in the vicinity of New York, Toronto, Montreal, London and other locations.
Accessible
Investors may purchase and sell shares through traditional brokerage accounts. The shares are listed and trade on NYSE Arca and are available to be bought or sold throughout the trading day.
Cost Efficient
Shares of the Trust may represent a cost-efficient alternative to investments in gold for investors not otherwise in a position to participate directly in the market for physical gold.
Transparent
Price, NAV and holding amounts of gold are available daily on iShares.com. Vault inspections are conducted twice a year and inspection certificates are available on iShares.com.
COMEX Gold Pricing Description
The COMEX Spot Month Settlement Price is the gold futures spot month settlement price as reported by NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) and disseminated through Bloomberg. Spot settlement prices are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent actual Trust performance. Spot prices do not reflect any fees, transaction costs or expenses.
Performance History
as of 5/31/10
YTD 2010
1 Year
3 Year
5 Year
10 Year
Since Trust Inception
Trust
10.51%
23.37%
21.92%
23.34%
—
21.04%
Benchmark1
10.68%
23.85%
22.40%
23.83%
16.13%
21.51%
Market Price Returns
10.75%
23.56%
21.95%
23.32%
—
21.08%
Annual Returnsas of 5/31/10
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
Trust
10.51%
23.46%
5.41%
30.92%
22.43%
—
Benchmark1
10.68%
23.95%
5.83%
31.44%
22.84%
18.19%
Market Price Returns
10.75%
23.95%
5.20%
30.34%
—
The performance quoted represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than the original cost.
Market returns are based upon the midpoint of the bid/ask spread at 4:00 p.m. ET (when NAV is normally determined for most iShares® products) and do not represent the returns you would receive if you traded shares at other times.
1. COMEX Spot Month Settlement Price.
Trust Details
Ticker
IAU
Inception Date
1/21/05
Sponsor’s Fee
0.25%
IOPV Ticker
IAU.IV
CUSIP
464285105
Stock Exchange
NYSE Arca
Total Net Assets
$3.28 Billion
Shares Outstanding
27.65 Million
Total Ounces of Gold
2.71 Million
Total Tonnes of Gold
84.22
Creation/Redemption Size
50,000 Shares
Sponsor
BlackRock Asset
Management International Inc.
Trustee
The Bank of New York Mellon
Custodians
The Bank of Nova Scotia,
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., London Branch
Vault Inspection
Two times annually
Fundamentals
Beta vs. S&P 500®
0.26
Standard Deviation—3 Year
22.90%
Definitions
IOPV, or Indicative Optimized Portfolio Value, is a calculation disseminated by the stock exchange that approximates the Trust’s NAV every fifteen seconds throughout the trading day.
Beta is a measure of an investment’s volatility relative to the market or an asset class. A beta above 1 is more volatile than the market, while a beta below 1 is less volatile. For stocks, the market is usually taken to be the S&P 500. Beta is sometimes referred to as systemic risk.
Standard deviation is the statistical measure of the degree to which an individual value in a probability distribution tends to vary from the mean of the distribution. It is widely applied in modern portfolio theory, where the past performance of securities is used to determine the range of possible future performance, and a probability is attached to each performance.
Historical Price of Gold (COMEX Gold Spot Settlement Price)
$1,400
Strong Japanese growth,
Weak US dollar,
$1,200
weakening US dollar
inflationary concerns
$1,000 Rapid increase of oil prices,
Middle East Crisis,
Ounce $800
high US inflation
Strong US dollar,
per
strengthening US stock market,
$600
Persian Gulf War
relatively low US inflation
Dollars $400
$200
Global market
uncertainty
1975
1977 1979 1981
1983 1985 1987
1989 1991
1993 1995
1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
2007 2009 2010
Source: Bloomberg, as of 5/31/10. The COMEX spot settlement price is determined from the input of COMEX member firms.
Portfolio Diversification
10-Year Correlations as of 5/31/10
Developed
Gold
US Large Cap
US Small Cap
International
Emerging Markets
US Fixed Income
Commodities
Gold
1.00
0.05
0.04
0.20
0.27
0.29
0.30
Historical Price of Gold (COMEX Gold Spot Settlement Price)
$1,400
Strong Japanese growth,
Weak US dollar,
$1,200
weakening US dollar
inflationary concerns
$1,000 Rapid increase of oil prices,
Middle East Crisis,
Ounce $800
high US inflation
Strong US dollar,
per
strengthening US stock market,
$600
Persian Gulf War
relatively low US inflation
Dollars $400
$200
Global market
uncertainty
1975
1977 1979 1981
1983 1985 1987
1989 1991
1993 1995
1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
2007 2009 2010
Source: Bloomberg, as of 5/31/10. The COMEX spot settlement price is determined from the input of COMEX member firms.
Portfolio Diversification
10-Year Correlations as of 5/31/10
Developed
Gold
US Large Cap
US Small Cap
International
Emerging Markets
US Fixed Income
Commodities
Gold
1.00
0.05
0.04
0.20
0.27
0.29
0.30
Sources: Bloomberg, S&P, MSCI, Barclays Capital and BlackRock. 10-year correlations based on monthly returns, as of 5/31/10. Gold: COMEX Gold Spot Settlement Price; US Large Cap: S&P 500® Index; US Small Cap: S&P 600 Index; Developed International: MSCI EAFE Index; Emerging Markets: MSCI Emerging Markets Index; US Fixed Income: Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index; Commodities: S&P GSCI® Total Return Index.
ment iShares (including COMEX aGold prospectus) Trust (“Trust”) with the has SEC filed for the a registration offering to which state- prospectus this communication and other relates. documents Before the you Trust invest, has you filed should with read the SEC the You for more may get complete these documents information for about free by the visiting issuer www. and this iShares. offering. com or Trust EDGAR will arrange on the to SEC send website you the at prospectus www.sec.gov. if you Alternatively, request it the by calling toll-free 1-800-474-2737.
Trust Investing is not involves an investment risk, including company possible registered loss under of principal. the Invest- The ment the Commodity Company Act Exchange of 1940 Act. or Shares a commodity of the Trust pool for are purposes not subject of shares to the of same the Trust regulatory are created requirements to reflect as the mutual price of funds. the gold Because held by as the the Trust, price the of gold market has price historically of the shares been. will Additionally, be as unpredictable shares of the commissions Trust are bought will reduce and sold returns. at market price (not NAV). Brokerage
The price received upon the sale of the shares, which trade at market price, may be more or less than the value of the gold represented by them. If an investor sells the shares at a time when no active market for them exists, such lack of an active For a market more complete will most
likely discussion adversely affect of the the risk price factors received relative for the shares. to the Trust, carefully read the prospectus.
Following an investment in shares of the Trust, several factors may have the effect of causing a decline in the prices of gold and a corresponding decline in the price of the shares. Among them: (i) Large sales by the official sector, including governments, central banks and related institutions, which own a significant portion of the aggregate world gold holdings. (ii) A significant increase in gold hedging activity by gold producers. Should there be an increase in the level of hedge activity of gold producing companies, it could cause a decline in world gold prices, adversely affecting the price of the shares. (iii) A significant change in the attitude of speculators and investors towards gold.
The amount of gold represented by shares of the Trust will decrease over the life of the Trust due to sales necessary to pay the sponsor’s fee and Trust expenses. Without increase in the price of gold sufficient to compensate for that decrease, the price of the shares will also decline, and investors will lose money on their investment. The Trust will have limited duration. The liquidation of the Trust may occur at a time when the disposition of the Trust’s gold will result in losses to investors. Although market makers will generally take advantage of differences between the NAV and the trading price of Trust shares through arbitrage opportunities, there is no guarantee that they will do so. There is no guarantee an active trading market will develop for the shares, which may result in losses on your investment at the time of disposition of your shares. The value of the shares of the Trust will be adversely affected if gold owned by the trust is lost or damaged in circumstances in which the Trust is not in a position to recover the corresponding loss. The Trust is a passive investment vehicle; the value of your shares may be adversely affected by trust losses that, if the trust had been actively managed, it might have been possible to avoid.
BlackRock Asset Management International Inc. (“BAMII”) is the sponsor of the Trust. BlackRock Fund Distribution Company (“BFDC”), a subsidiary of BAMII, assists in the promotion of the Trust. BAMII is an affiliate of BlackRock, Inc. Although shares of the Trust may be bought or sold on the exchange through any brokerage account, shares of the Trust are not redeemable from the Trust except in large aggregated units called “Baskets.” “Commodity Exchange, Inc.,” and “COMEX” are trademarks of Commodity Exchange, Inc., and have been licensed for use for certain purposes to BlackRock, Inc., and the iShares COMEX Gold Trust. The Trust is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Commodity Exchange, Inc., nor does Commodity Exchange, Inc., make any representation regarding the advisability of investing in the Trust.
©2010 BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. All rights reserved. iShares® is a registered trademark of BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. All other trademarks, servicemarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 3008-13AN-07/10
Not FDIC Insured • No Bank
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.iSHARES.COM OR CALL 1_800_iSHARES _1_800_474_2737_