Explorer shake out coming

Several illustrous precious metal mining gurus have been warning for it: an explorer shake out is coming.

As Rick Rule uses to phrase it: "Many explorers will inevitably tend towards their intrinsic value: zero", qualifying the typical ill managed nano-cap as "would-be explorers lead by butchers, bakers and candle stick makers".

Gold Miners hit rock bottom relative to gold

A graph says more than a thousand words: Gold Miners hit rock bottom relative to gold.

HUI Gold ratio since  Jan 2008 (graph updated on Apr 05, 2013)

Platinum group metals, a story of scarcity and industrial needs

Among precious metals, platinum deserves special attention because of several of its characteristics. Unlike gold or silver, platinum is an extremely hard metal, with high wear resistance. Alloying platinum with gold makes the alloy more malleable.  Platinum is denser than gold and has with 21.45 g/cm³ over twice the density of silver. It melts at a higher temperature (1768.3 °C or 2041.4 K) than silver or gold.  Unlike silver and palladium[1] and similar to gold, platinum is not corroded in any normal environment.
(With graphs updated as of Jan 5, 2017)

Miners relative to precious metal prices - an update

The focus of this blog article is on the gold and silver miners from a tactical point of view: how do PM miners perform relative to the price of gold or silver.
Special attention is paid to the miners covered by the database 'Canadian gold and silver mining', for which a capital weighted index of gold- and silver miners is calculated. Aggregated performance is one thing, it's also very illustrative that miner and explorer performance has been diverging from outperforming the metals by a wide margin to losing ground completely.

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.