Thursday is proving to be another grizzly for long gold miners exchange traded funds. The tale of woe starts with the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX), the largest miners ETF.
GDX is down almost 5% on volume that is nearly 30% above the daily average, no small feat for one of the most heavily traded U.S. ETFs. All GDX needs to do is shed another 90 cents to reach its all-time low, which was last visited six years ago.
Speaking of all-time lows, to this point in Thursday’s session, 17 ETFs have committed that offense. As we reported earlier, six of those funds are silver ETFs, but the number has since grown to seven. Of the other 10, seven are gold miners ETFs. [Bad Things for Silver ETFs]
That group of seven includes the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDXJ), which has made a new low for a second consecutive day. GDXJ is now off 13% in just the past five trading days, dealing a blow to the thesis that junior miners could be poised to rally.
There is more to the story with gold miners and these added tidbits underscore just how wrong some traders are getting the current plungers by miners ETFs with leveraged funds. Indeed, this is a theme has been previously examined, but, unfortunately, it is not getting any better. [Getting it Wrong With Leveraged Gold ETFs]
Two of the ETFs joining the new all-time low club Thursday are the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares (NYSEArca: NUGT) and the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: JNUG). NUGT and JNUG are the triple-leveraged equivalents of GDX and GDXJ, which is to say these are not ETFs one should be long when miners tumble.