We have spoken about inflows into Gold amid heavy trading volume in the leading ETP there GLD (SPDR Gold, Expense Ratio 0.40%) for at least the past week, and the ETF is not alone in attracting some interest at these levels.
Year to date GLD has pulled in >$1.2 billion in new assets via creation activity while the second largest fund here IAU (iShares Gold, Expense Ratio 0.25%) has tacked on nearly $300 million
year to date.
Notably, GLD has more than $30 billion in overall assets under management currently while IAU is a distant second in the category with about $7 billion in AUM. The recent uptrend in Gold and largely Precious Metals prices since the beginning of the year has been kind to the Gold Miners as well, at least in the case of GDX (Market Vectors Gold Miners, Expense Ratio 0.53%) which has pulled in >$400 million in new assets lately.
GDX now trades a massive 65 million shares plus on an average daily basis, ranking it number two across all U.S. listed ETPs in terms of ADV behind SPY (SPDR S&P 500, Expense Ratio 0.09%). Top holdings in GDX currently are GG (9.90%), ABX (8.28%), and NEM (6.29%) and after a brutal 2014 in terms of performance for the fund, it has impressed in the early going in 2015, challenging its 200 day MA once again this morning in early trade.
The second largest fund in the Gold Miners category, GDXJ (Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners, Expense Ratio 0.57%) in its own right has $1.97 billion in assets under management currently, while daily leveraged trading vehicles NUGT (Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X, Expense Ratio 0.95%), JNUG (Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Bull 3X, Expense Ratio 0.95%), DUST (Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X, Expense Ratio 0.95%), and JDST (Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Bear 3X, Expense Ratio 0.95%) remain very popular, with notable volume swells across the board for nearly the entire month of January on what clearly looks like increased investment interest in the space.