I can tell you for sure there are funds that own lots of gold like SPDR GLD and there are funds that bet on gold stocks, futures, indexes etc. that don't own one ounce of the stuff. Same with silver.
Just like lots of other commodities. For some very strange reason goldbugs seem fixated on the notion that gold is the only commodity that you can trade without actually taking it home. It's not true. You can actually trade the weather, and you can't take that home with you.
