As has been widely documented, gold miners stocks and the related exchange traded funds are getting drubbed this year. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX), the largest exchange traded fund dedicated to gold mining stocks, entered Monday with a year-to-date loss of more than 22%.
An overlooked scenario is one of the reasons why gold mining equities are flailing this year. In July, Vanguard, one of the largest issuers of ETFs and index funds, said it is revamping a fund that previously focused on miners.
That fund will be renamed the Vanguard Global Capital Cycles Fund and will feature significantly less exposure to precious metals miners than its previous version.
Related: Top 34 Gold ETFs
“The new fund will focus on telecommunications and utilities, with only ~25% exposure to precious metals and mining,” according to Seeking Alpha.
Traders willing to wager on more declines for gold miners can consider the inverse leveraged Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bear 3X Shares (NYSEARCA: DUST) and the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bear 3X Shares (NYSEARCA: JDST).
DUST seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of either 300% or 300% of the inverse (or opposite) of the performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index.
