I sourced the chart below from a blog called The Macro Tourist. I added the title and the two yellow trend lines. The chart shows the daily price of gold since the inception of the bull market in 2000-2001. Last Friday (March 8th) gold popped $12 +/- (depending on the time from which you measure). I mentioned to some colleagues that “gold may be starting something special.”
The price of gold retested the $1300 level last week. Aggressive futures short-selling on the Comex took the price of gold below $1300 on Thursday last week. The price ambush failed to keep gold below $1300, as strong Indian demand and a growing expectation that the Fed will stop its balance sheet liquidation and eventually re-start QE.
A lot of current precious metals and mining stock investors were not around for the 2008-2011 bull run and even less were around for the 2001-2006 bull run. The move from January 2016 to July 2016 was a head-fake that was part of the long period of consolidation shown in the chart above. Many of you have not experienced how much money can be made investing in junior mining stocks when a real bull move takes place.
The chart above shows how cheap gold is vs. the SPX. Similarly, the mining stocks in relation to the price of gold are almost as cheap as they were in 2001 and the end of 2015. In 2016 the VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners (NYSE:GDXJ) ran 300% from January to July. But in 2008, the HUI ran from 150 to 300 in 60 days and then from 300 to well over 600 over the next 2 1/2 year. Many juniors increased in value 10-20x. The move from 2001-2006 provided the same type of excitement.
I believe the long period of consolidation in the precious metals sector is finally ending. While there’s always the possibility that it could drag on longer, the risk/reward for investing in the juniors right now is as highly skewed toward “reward,” as it was in 2001 and 2008. The market will not go straight up and there will be some gut-wrenching, manipulated sell-offs. But I believe patience will be rewarded. This means not going “all-in” all at once but wading in slowly over time.