Today's stock market is full of hot investment themes...
From artificial intelligence ("AI") to robotics to quantum computing... the market is rich with tech opportunities.
Still, these themes aren't earning big returns in 2025. Instead, your money would have been much better off in one of the oldest, most boring businesses in the world... gold.
Gold is up roughly 25% this year. And gold miners are doing even better... rising more than 50% as a group.
But investors still don't care. No one is buying gold stocks. And that tells us this rally will continue...
Gold Stocks Are Up 50% This Year and Still Have Room to Run
Wise investors often get spooked when prices begin to soar. Things quickly feel too good to be true. After all, what goes up must come down.
No one wants to ride a stock higher... only to watch their winnings vanish as the trend reverses. But that's only a concern when a healthy boom turns into an unsustainable bubble.
Bubble behavior happens when just about everyone is clamoring to buy. But that's not the case with the booming gold-mining sector this year...
These mining stocks are soaring... and still, no one's buying yet.
First, look at just how dramatic the 2025 rally has been...
The overall stock market has effectively gone nowhere this year. Meanwhile, gold is soaring... And gold stocks are up about twice as much as gold.
Again, that would be worrying if folks were giddy to buy. But the opposite is true right now.
We can see this by looking at shares outstanding for the largest gold-mining fund, the VanEck Gold Miners Fund (GDX). Since GDX is an exchange-traded fund, it can create and liquidate shares based on investor demand.
So when everyone wants to own gold stocks, GDX creates new shares to meet demand. And when everyone wants to sell, it liquidates shares.
We'd expect shares outstanding for GDX to be soaring right now. Rising prices should attract new buyers. Instead, this measure has fallen to a multiyear low. Take a look...
Gold and gold stocks have produced incredible returns over the past three years. But while investors have gotten more interested in the metal, no one seems to care about gold stocks.
Shares outstanding were declining to start 2025. And they've dropped another 20% so far this year.
That tells us everything we need to know about investor interest in this group. No one's buying. Instead, folks are selling in a big way.
Again, that's surprising, given the 50%-plus rally we've already seen this year. But it's also a sign that this rally can continue.
Now, this opportunity won't be as exciting to talk about as AI or other groundbreaking tech. But in 2025, gold miners are creating big profits. And since no one's buying, you haven't missed this move yet.
Good investing,
Brett Eversole
Further Reading
A major banking rule change set to take effect this month will elevate gold's standing to a top-tier asset. Institutional demand has already surged ahead of this shift, helping fuel gold's strong rally this year... and setting the stage for more gains to come.
Gold has dominated headlines this year... but it's not the only metal making a major move. A rare shift in the market is setting up a quiet opportunity – one that has delivered double-digit gains every single time it has appeared.