As strange as that sounds, the data Hemke presents shows a very strong correlation to the price of silver. (Which I might add, March is a delivery month for silver so the cartel will probably hammer away on silver next week to shake the contract tree but if Mar silver is anything like Feb gold...things could get interesting, especially if this correlation holds and silver up ticks. (Once Feb gold contracts were bled for all they could, gold rose...March silver??? No idea...but could be.)
Hemeke:
Finally, what the heck is wrong with the mining shares thus far in 2020? As mentioned above, gold prices are up over 5% year-to-date, but many of the key gold mining indices and ETFs are down on the year thus far. What gives?
Well, whether by design or by fate of algorithm, the mining shares now closely track SILVER instead of gold. And, of course, this makes zero sense! Why would a basket of junior gold mining shares rise and fall with the price of silver? The most likely answer is that we have 21st century automation to blame. We all know that the vast majority of equity trading now falls to the pre-programmed HFT computers, and quite obviously, many of these machines take their cues to buy or sell mining shares from the directional trade of silver. Again, don't just take my word for it. See the charts below, where COMEX silver is displayed in candlesticks while the shares of the GDXJ appear as a blue line:
