The way gold has been rising, especially during the months of heavy volatility, investors had to be wishing they were King Midas so they can apply the golden touch to all of their assets. With all the activity occurring in safe haven assets like precious metals, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on gold definitely saw more than their fair share of action.
From a technical standpoint, gold could be poised for more gains, especially since October can be a volatile month for equities. There could once again be a scramble for safe haven assets like gold forthcoming.
Thursday’s trading session already saw gold move to the upside.
“Gold prices edged higher generating a dead cat bounce hovering just above support near the 10-day moving average at 1,505,” wrote currency trading site FX Empire. “Additional support is the 50-day moving average at 1,491. Resistance is seen near the weekly highs at 1,535. Short term momentum has turned negative as the fast stochastic generated a crossover sell signal in the middle of the neutral range.”
“Medium-term momentum looked to be turning, and it appeared the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) is poised to generate a crossover buy signal if prices continue to trend,” the site added. “This occurs as the MACD line (the 12-day moving average minus the 26-day moving average) crosses above the MACD signal line (the 9-day moving average of the MACD line). The MACD crossover has been halted which could point to consolidation.”
Which funds have been the most active movers? One would think that the biggest gold ETF in terms of assets—SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD). However, year-to-date, it’s been the iShares Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU) that’s topped the list in terms of volume.
IAU seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of gold. The advisor intends to constitute a simple and cost-effective means of making an investment similar to an investment in gold. An investment in physical gold requires expensive and sometimes complicated arrangements in connection with the assay, transportation, warehousing and insurance of the metal.
For traders looking for leverage, active movers are funds like the VelocityShares 3x Long Gold ETN Linked to the S&P GSCI Gold Index ER (NasdaqGM: UGLD). For the opposite direction, there’s the VelocityShares 3x Inverse Gold ETN Linked to the S&P GSCI Gold Index ER (NasdaqGM: DGLD).
Here is the full list of most active gold ETFs thus far in 2019:
| Symbol | ETF Name | Avg Volume |
| IAU | iShares Gold Trust | 23,677,504 |
| GLD | SPDR Gold Trust | 12,122,542 |
| GLDM | SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust | 1,343,848 |
| UGLD | VelocityShares 3x Long Gold ETN | 183,028 |
| DGLD | VelocityShares 3x Inverse Gold ETN | 178,391 |
| BAR | GraniteShares Gold Trust | 169,046 |
| UGL | ProShares Ultra Gold | 153,178 |
| SGOL | Aberdeen Standard Physical Swiss Gold Shares ETF | 100,551 |
| AAAU | Perth Mint Physical Gold ETF | 66,106 |
| GOAU | US Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF | 63,192 |
| OUNZ | Van Eck Merk Gold Trust | 55,100 |
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.
