Using Gold and Silver as Portfolio Insurance

Today was another ‘sit on hands’ day with not much buying to be done. So I got to wondering how I was doing in an experiment I’m running that mostly holds precious metals stocks and ETFs that I started edging into a couple years back.

The purpose of the experiment wasn’t to make gobs of money, but to see if I could create a counter-market hedge. My thesis was that, if the broad market was as over-bought and as disconnected from fundamentals as I thought, then the metals and their producers should eventually become a put (i.e., could serve as portfolio insurance for my holdings elsewhere).

In all, I’m running 110 positions in the account. These are just the top 53 by portfolio weight.

Weight	P/L	Description
17.2%	196.8%	iShares Gold Trust
8.2%	293.5%	Aris Mining Corporation
6.7%	309.1%	New Gold Inc.
6.3%	259.9%	Gold Fields Limited American Depositary Shares
6.3%	271.0%	AngloGold Ashanti PLC
4.5%	156.8%	Orla Mining Ltd.
3.6%	83.0%	VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF
3.4%	125.0%	VanEck Gold Miners ETF
3.1%	92.2%	Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited
2.6%	107.0%	Eldorado Gold Corporation
2.6%	145.7%	Triple Flag Precious Metals Corp.
2.2%	137.8%	OR Royalties Inc.
2.2%	98.5%	Wheaton Precious Metals Corp
2.1%	31.6%	Sprott Physical Silver Trust Units
2.0%	206.8%	Themes Gold Miners ETF
2.0%	242.6%	Iamgold Corporation
1.7%	87.8%	B2Gold Corp (Canada)
1.6%	202.5%	Sprott Gold Miners ETF
1.5%	53.5%	Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (Canada)
1.4%	86.0%	United States Antimony Corporation
1.3%	180.9%	Centerra Gold Inc.
1.3%	61.0%	Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
1.1%	40.7%	Aura Minerals Inc.
1.1%	104.0%	Amplify Junior Silver Miners ETF
1.1%	31.4%	Sprott Active Gold & Silver Miners ETF
1.0%	280.4%	Gold Royalty Corp.
1.0%	90.1%	Albemarle Corporation
0.9%	70.9%	DRDGOLD Limited American Depositary Shares
0.8%	31.0%	WisdomTree Efficient Gold Plus Gold Miners Strategy Fund
0.8%	28.6%	Sibanye Stillwater Limited - ADR
0.7%	99.3%	Equinox Gold Corp.
0.7%	34.4%	abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF
0.5%	83.1%	Alamos Gold Inc. Class A
0.5%	22.4%	Global X Gold Explorers ETF
0.5%	59.8%	VanEck Merk Gold ETF
0.5%	22.0%	ISHARES INC
0.4%	30.5%	Galiano Gold Inc.
0.4%	81.6%	Skeena Resources Limited
0.3%	24.2%	Sprott Physical Platinum and Palladium Trust Unit
0.3%	58.7%	Pan American Silver Corp.
0.3%	27.1%	GraniteShares Platinum Shares
0.3%	63.3%	Hudbay Minerals Inc. (Canada)
0.2%	32.3%	New Found Gold Corp
0.2%	54.9%	Global X Silver Miners ETF
0.2%	27.9%	PBF Energy Inc. Class A
0.2%	41.5%	Comstock Inc.
0.2%	100.0%	Silvercorp Metals Inc.
0.1%	172.3%	Lithium Argentina AG
0.1%	98.6%	Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A.
0.1%	4.4%	United States Copper Index Fund
0.1%	19.0%	United States Natural Gas Fund
0.1%	56.5%	Newmont Corporation
0.1%	26.9%	U.S. Gold Corp.

Yep, not a single loser –so far– which I tend to be pretty ruthless about getting rid of before the loss becomes an annoyance, just as I tend to harvest windfall profits as fast as they occur. But I’ve let these stocks and ETFs ride, because that was how I had set up the experiment. It was meant to be a longer-term project that still has a way to play out.

4 Likes