Friday, April 29, 2011

Investopedia: Can Smaller Miners Become Big Winners In The Gold Rush?

Gold is still the hot trade. While it's not that hard to remember when gold was an afterthought, squeezed between a quick summary of bonds and commodities during financial programming, it is now a leading investment class. Whether an investor's interest in gold is fueled by fears of inflation, economic and political turbulence, technicals, or even just a "greater fool" theory, the reality is that it has been a winning trade.

By now any investor with even a passing interest in gold knows a little something about the myriad of choices for investment. People can choose to own actual bullion or numismatic gold, resource mutual funds, specialized ETFs like SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD), or mining stocks ... and those are just the most popular options. (For more, see What To Do About Gold Now.)

Given that mining companies are the only entry on the list that can actually grow from internal strategic decisions, they are worth a serious look. Here, we'll consider some of the smaller miners, which can offer substantially more bang for the buck than major miners like Barrick (NYSE:ABX) and Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM).

A Quick View From Above 
What is interesting about mining companies is that they don't necessarily track gold prices, and that is particularly true for smaller miners. For small miners, performance is often significantly influenced by the company's efforts to bring mines into operation and increase gold production. Investors should also note that many (if not most) analysts expect gold prices to peak in the next year or two and then decline - that does not preclude successful investments in small miners and those analysts could certainly be wrong, but it is a detail to consider all the same. 

Please continue via the link below:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Can-Smaller-Miners-Become-Big-Winners-In-The-Gold-Rush-GLD-ABX-NEM-IAG-EGO-AUY-GG0429.aspx

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