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Organization
9 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2015
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Organization
1. Organization

The SPDR® Gold Trust (the “Trust”) is an investment trust formed on November 12, 2004 (“Date of Inception”) under New York law pursuant to a trust indenture. The fiscal year end for the Trust is September 30th. The Trust holds gold and is expected from time to time to issue shares (“Shares”) (in minimum denominations of 100,000 Shares, also referred to as “Baskets”) in exchange for deposits of gold and to distribute gold in connection with redemption of Baskets. The investment objective of the Trust is for the Shares to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the Trust’s expenses.

The Shares trade on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (“NYSE Arca”) under the symbol “GLD”, providing investors with an efficient means to obtain market exposure to the price of gold bullion. The Shares are also listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange (Bolsa Mexicana de Valores), the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, a division of The Bank of New York Mellon (the “Trustee”) does not actively manage the gold held by the Trust. This means that the Trustee does not sell gold at times when its price is high, or acquire gold at low prices in the expectation of future price increases. It also means that the Trustee does not make use of any of the hedging techniques available to professional gold investors to attempt to reduce the risk of losses resulting from price decreases. Any losses sustained by the Trust will adversely affect the value of the Shares.

Effective October 1, 2014, the Trust has adopted the financial presentation provisions appropriate to an investment company for accounting purposes and follows the accounting and reporting guidance under the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification Topic 946, Financial Services – Investment Companies (“Topic 946”), but is not registered, and is not required to be registered, under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”). Please refer to Note 2.2 Investment Company Status.

The statement of financial condition and schedule of investment at June 30, 2015, the statements of operations and of cash flows for the three and nine months ended June 30, 2015 and 2014 and the statement of changes in net assets for the nine months ended June 30, 2015 have been prepared on behalf of the Trust without audit. In the opinion of management of the sponsor of the Trust, World Gold Trust Services, LLC (the “Sponsor”), all adjustments (which include normal recurring adjustments) necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows as of and for the three and nine months ended June 30, 2015 and for all periods presented have been made.

These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes thereto included in the Trust’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2014. The results of operations for the nine months ended June 30, 2015 are not necessarily indicative of the operating results for the full fiscal year.