For those interested in trading a few gold stocks this is a must read , I have been waiting
Years for these market conditions .
This is by no means share trading advice on my behalf , simply an article which meets my opinion.
8)
Cheers.
Gold Stocks Shine in 2015
Gold Stocks Shine in 2015
By Expert Panel | 22.12.2014
Gold stocks have suffered a miserable few years, becoming a laughingstock even among contrarians. But this despised sectors seemingly-endless downward spiral has left gold stocks vastly undervalued relative to gold, which drives their profits. The fundamentally-absurd disconnect between gold-stock price levels and gold cant last. And it sure looks ready to end, making 2015 the year gold stocks shine again.
Any stock is a fractional ownership stake in a corporation, entitling shareholders to participate in that companys profits. So over time, any stock price ultimately reflects a reasonable multiple of these very underlying earnings. If a stock price falls too low relative to corporate profits, investors step in to buy shares cheap bidding their prices higher. And the opposite is true if a stock grows too expensive relative to earnings.
In the gold-mining industry, the price of gold is the dominant driver of corporate profits by far. Mining costs are largely determined by the particular deposit being mined, and are largely fixed when any mine is designed and constructed. So gold miners profits are almost totally dependent on the price of gold. The higher it happens to be, the larger their margins grow since their costs generally dont change much.
This dynamic is what has long made gold stocks attractive to investors. When the gold price rallies, the profits of gold miners rocket higher much faster. If a miner can produce gold for $900 an ounce, and sell it for $1200, its profits are $300. But if gold merely climbs 25% higher to $1500, that same miners profits double to $600. This inherent profits leverage to gold makes the gold stocks really amplify golds moves.
But as in all stock-market sectors, this key fundamental relationship between earnings and stock prices can be temporarily derailed by sentiment extremes. Sometimes investors get greedy, and bid gold-stock prices up far higher than their gold-driven profits could ever support. And other times they get scared, selling so aggressively that prices fall far below their earnings-supported levels. Great fear has plagued gold stocks.
This has hammered this sector to truly fundamentally-absurd levels relative to the metal that drives its profits. The leading gold-stock index is the NYSE Arca Gold BUGS Index, widely known by its symbol HUI. Back in early November, this gold-stock-sector measuring rod was crushed down to 146.8. The last time this index had been lower was a whopping 11.3 years earlier all the way back in July 2003.
The problem was these recent extreme lows were spawned by overwhelming fear, not underlying profits fundamentals. In early November 2014, the gold price fell just under $1150. But the last time the HUI had been so low over a decade earlier, gold was trading near $350. Does it make any sense at all for gold stocks to be trading at the same levels despite gold being 3.3x higher? No, its a crazy fear anomaly.
Gold stocks are priced as if gold was just 30% of its prevailing levels today. Imagine this same kind of vast fundamental disconnect in another industry. What if Apples stock was trading at levels reflecting it selling just 30% of the iPhones its actually selling? Investors would rush to buy it, knowing full well that extreme sentiment-driven fundamental anomalies never last for long. Why should gold stocks be any different?
And make no mistake, investors will return. Between the birth of gold stocks secular bull in November 2000 and its peak in September 2011, the HUI skyrocketed a mind-boggling 1664% higher! This nicely leveraged golds own 603% gain over that span, and trounced the benchmark S&P 500s 14% loss. The investors who were willing to buy gold stocks cheap back in the early 2000s earned vast fortunes over a decade.
But sentiment started to turn in 2012, when the HUI slipped 11% despite gold gaining 7%. And 2013 was the year of QE3, the Feds wildly-unprecedented debt-monetizing money printing that spawned an incredible stock-market levitation. As the US stock markets inflated dramatically on nothing but Fed hot air, alternative investments like gold were wholesale abandoned. Why buy gold when stocks are soaring?
So in 2013 the HUI plummeted 55% to golds 28% loss. Truly gold stocks should have bottomed after such an extreme down year, as fear in this sector was off the charts. And indeed they spent most of 2014 regaining ground, but that great progress collapsed in recent months. Now year-to-date, the HUI has dropped 20% to a mere 2% gold loss, reflecting the ongoing extreme and irrational fear in this sector.
But gold stocks cant fall relative to gold forever, they cant be forced into a situation where their various earnings multiples are merely a fraction of the broader stock markets indefinitely. Like everything else in the markets, the relationship of gold-stock prices to gold levels is forever cyclical. Greedy uplegs push gold stocks well above reasonable levels relative to gold, then fearful corrections hammer them back below.