What are the Gold Shares Saying?

The HUI to gold ratio continues to plumb new lows over the last few months having already moved well below the spike bottom made back in late 2008 when the first news about Quantitative Easing hit the markets. The falling ratio is disturbing.

Either one of two things is going to happen - either gold shares are going to stage a rebound sooner rather than later or the price of gold is going to start moving lower at a faster rate than the shares. There always remains the possibility that both will rise higher in sync with the shares outperforming to the upside. That would restore the ratio but thus far the technical charts of the HUI index do not show any serious buying by anyone but the value crowd.

The ratio has fallen through every single Fibonacci retracement level shown on the chart drawn off the 2000 low and the 2003 high. Classic Fibonacci theory would tell us that if the 75% retracement level is bested, odds favor the entire move being erased. that is more than sobering; it is a catastrophe.

It is telling that no matter what gold does, the shares simply cannot seem to gain much in the way of traction to the upside. Perhaps that will change but thus far the shares, which have been rather good at predicting in what direction the price of gold will be going, are heading lower.

One wonders just how far this ratio will continue to move. This is the reason that I have strongly recommended to miners that if they have the opportunity to lock in some good profits on gold under production, that they do so, at least a decent percentage of that production, to ensure those profits. In other words, hedge or use some forward contract methods so that they do not sit there and watch the metal sink lower on them without any downside price protection.

The ratio at such low levels would seem to be saying that there is a distinct possibility of lower gold prices ahead. Gold at $1300 is certainly not the same as gold at $1900 but if a miner can dig it out of the ground and secure profits at that price, why risk all of those profits? Something is going on in the mining shares which simply makes investors reluctant to buy them even after such a protracted decline. Perhaps investors are wondering whether profits are in the picture before they put hard earned capital at risk.