The hard life of a mining investor

Mining Shares versus Precious Metals

The precious metal side

Investing in precious metal bullion is relatively easy: you have only two (or three including platinum) metals to choose from. Coins or bars makes little difference: the premium is higher the smaller the item.
Precious metals investing in the larger sense may turn out to be more difficult or treacherous.

Sudden swoons are the fate of precious metal prices

The future casino

The futures volume traded exceeds the trade of physical products manifold. This often is the case for soft commodities, crude and non-ferro metals. Yet precious metals really trump all. Many on-line trading platforms don’t even allow any physical settlement, reducing a future contract to a bet on the future price. Describing a gold future transaction as "a promise to sell by a party who hasn't got the precious metal to a buyer who hasn't got the cash" is hardly exaggerating.

Benchmark of Precious Metal Mining ETFs

A first glance: year-to-date graphs of :

1. GDX, Van Eck's large-cap Gold Mining ETF,
2. GDXJ, Van Eck's junior Gold Mining ETF,
3. SIL, the Global X Silver Mining ETF,
4. GLDX, the Global X Gold Explorer ETF.

Who is talking silver down?

From its 2012 bottom level to the $35 attained intraday, silver has rallied over 32%. This is almost the double of the mere 17% gold rallied from its $1537.5 bottom (LME fix) to an intraday close to $1800. Yet in a different perspective, gold is currently quoting at less than 10% below its all time high, while silver needs another 30% rally before coming close to its April 2011 peak level.

But again, in this kind of game, it's not long term trends that count and even less fundamentals. For short term gain, only short term moves are of any importance. On two consecutive occasions, Daniela Cambone of Kitco News, hints at rumors on an imminent correction for silver.

Gold explorers have a long way to go

Several gold explorers have popped and some have doubled (or even more). Does this mean the best days already are behind us? Not quite. If some gold explorers put down a stellar rally over the last few weeks, this mainly is some recovery after the dire malperformance during the preceding months, when explorers were sliced and diced, leaving investors with a couple of dimes on the dollar.

Vastgoedcertficaten: uit de gratie?

De marktstemming en tendens bij enkele vastgoedcertificaten

Antares: het water is veel te diep

Waar tijdens de zomer nog behoorlijke volumes verhandeld werden aan een geboden koers (bid) net onder €57, lijken de verkopers nu minder scheutig geworden. De ‘bid’ van €57,05 raakt maar niet ingevuld. Anderzijds schijnt niemand totnogtoe bereid omtrent €59 neer te tellen. Er is een significant aanbodvolume aan €59,74-75. Het water is veel te diep tussen kopers en verkopers.

Pretium Resources: slide justified?

Pretium came with very decent drilling results lately (and was rewarded with a sell off). Last week, I saw some article pointing to PVG dropping below its 200 dma. This may also have triggered some additional selling spree on Friday, September 7.

Halfjaarresultaat Kortrijk Ring Shopping valt tegen

Op 1 september publiceerde de beheerder van het vastgoedcertificaat Kortrijk Ring Shopping de resultaten over het eerste semester. (Het boekjaar valt samen met een kalenderjaar). Het resultaat wordt door de belegger niet echt geapprecieerd en het certificaat stelde in de loop van vorige week zijn 52 weeks minimum bij tot €400. Doordat de verkoopdruk aanhoudt, gaan we hoogstwaarschijnlijk nog wel lager.

QE expectations kick-start precious metals rally

Weak employment data spur the expectation on the FED initiating QE3 rather soon, which in turn prevented the stock market from collapsing on the bad news. The S&P ultimately closes with a 0.4% gain.

The expectation of further liquidity injection really kick-started precious metals. Gold had eased to below $1700 but leaped over 2% within minutes. By 4:45 pm gold is up 2.06% to $1736.3. A similar story for silver quoting at $33.67 up nearly 3%. PGM's lag, with Pt adding 0.5% and Pd up 1.25%.

Silver delivery problems expected

Silver delivery problems expected

Daniela Cambone (Kitco News) interviews Bill Murphy of GATA, the Gold Anti Trust Action committee.

Video link