The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX) and the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDXJ), the two largest gold miners exchange traded funds, are surging and, not surprisingly, that is leading to some increased activity in leveraged gold miners ETFs.
Notably, there is plenty of enthusiasm for the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: JNUG), the triple-leveraged answer to the popular GDXJ.
“As the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares almost tripled in the past two months, the number of shares changing hands has surged nearly fourfold this year. That’s even as trading has dropped for an ETF tracking larger mining peers and for the SPDR Gold Shares, the largest bullion-backed fund. The boost in volume has also led to a jump in bullish options on the leveraged security, with more than two calls for each put,” reports Eddie Van Der Walt for Bloomberg.
The Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares (NYSEArca: NUGT) is JNUG’s large-cap counterpart. NUGT is up almost 51% year-to-date compared to a gain of nearly 97% for JNUG.