VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) – The gold sector is starting to show some impressive relative strength with Materials and commodities overall one of the outperforming groups as of late. The gold miners are a higher beta way to play a gold breakout that might be setting up into Springtime on the weekly and monthly chart timeframes. If nothing else, it makes sense to pay attention to gold and miners for the first time in quite awhile based on the longer term monthly chart consolidation pattern that has been building the last two years. GDX is very near a trendline break on the weekly and RSI trying to breakout ahead of price is a bullish clue. The ETF recently held a key long term support zone at 30 which was also the 50% fib retracement of the big 2020 low to high range. GDX has some resistance near term at the YTD VPOC level of 34 roughly but if it can close above that it could really ramp higher above 35 into the next several months. The weekly squeeze pattern on the chart can be explosive with potential to retest its former 2020 highs at 45.78 eventually. 

The ETF’s top 15 holdings are NEM, GOLD, FNV, WPM, NCMGY, AEM, KL, GFI, AU, NST, KGC, RGLD, EDV, EVN. The ETF is a bit top heavy with the first 3 names in the list making up about 38% of the ETF. The strongest charts in the space within bullish uptrends and strong RSI readings include some of the top weightings as well with NEM, GOLD, FNV and GFI. Options flows on GDX have seen several bullish trades open since the new year began. On 1/27 a buyer of September $30 calls at $3.05 for $1.6M and on 1/3 an opening put seller in the January 2024 $30 puts at $4.57 for over $2.84M, showing confidence in that level as a longer term support.