Good morning GoldBuzzers, and welcome to Sunday!

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving weekend here, so it’s family time and we have a lot to be thankful for!

And if you missed the fireworks, don't worry - we're just getting started.

It’s been a history-making week with both Gold and Silver hitting their interim targets of $4,000 and $50.

By popular demand, in this week’s Deep Dive, I’m going to take a look at how to leverage the liquidity and diversification that the top gold and silver ETFs can offer.

OK, let’s dive right in.

Spot gold jumped back above $4,000 on Friday, after Thursday’s smackdown and briefly flirted with Wednesday's all-time high of $4,059, after President Trump canceled his planned meeting with Xi Jinping and threatened new tariffs on Chinese imports.

Israel's ceasefire with Hamas provided brief relief, but geopolitical anxiety remains sky-high across multiple fronts.

We're witnessing exactly the kind of environment the Theseus research identified - very strong technical factors converging with mounting fundamentals to drive sustained precious metals appreciation.

With gold posting eight straight weekly gains and fundamental drivers (geopolitical tensions, slowing global growth, persistent inflation, and continued diversification away from the dollar) showing no signs of easing, this bull market is still in its early stages.

Stay positioned, stay informed, and remember: corrections are normal even in the strongest bull runs.

Gold broke $4,000 per ounce this week. Silver crossed $50. Suddenly, everyone wants in.

But not everybody wants to deal with safety deposit boxes, storage fees and security.

Since I added ETFs to The Scoreboard last week, many of you emailed to ask more about them. I even heard from a very experienced, long-term gold investor who said he’d never seriously considered ETFs before he looked at the 1-year returns in last Sunday’s GoldBuzz, and compared them with some of his own holdings.

So, wherever you are on your gold journey, here’s a quick rundown.

If you’re new to ETFs, exchange-traded funds are basically baskets of assets that trade like stocks. You buy shares on the regular market, and the fund handles everything behind the scenes. Some hold physical metal in vaults. Others own mining companies. Either way, you get exposure without the headache.

Now, many hardcore gold bugs would argue that “if you don’t hold it, you don’t own it”, and I’d always recommend owning some physical if you can, but ETFs have introduced huge additional liquidity into the precious metals markets and made them accessible to a mass audience who want the convenience of owning gold or silver in brokerage or retirement accounts.

The Physical Metal Plays

SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is the heavyweight. With $124 billion in assets under management and average daily volume around 12 million shares, it's exceptionally liquid and the easiest way to track gold prices. Expense ratio sits at 0.40%.

GLD holds physical gold bars in vaults. When gold moves, GLD moves. Simple.

iShares Silver Trust (SLV) is GLD's silver equivalent. It's currently sitting at $23 billion in assets, much less than GLD but with the increasing interest in Silver, recent average volume has seen about 26 million shares trading hands each day, more than double GLD. You'll pay 0.50% annually, pretty standard for physical metal funds.

With inflows at their highest level since 2020, institutional money is piling into SLV hard.

The Mining Stock Leverage

VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) delivered 122% returns year-to-date. It holds $22 billion in assets with daily volume around 21 million shares.

GDX owns the major players. Newmont, Barrick, Agnico Eagle. When gold jumps 3%, these stocks can jump 6% or more. That's what the 0.51% expense ratio gets you.

VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) goes smaller. $8 billion in assets, 5 million shares moving daily. This one holds the exploration companies and smaller operators and it’s been the best performer of all precious metals ETFs over the past 12 months (+101%).

Junior miners can explode higher when gold runs. They can also crater faster when it doesn't. The 0.51% fee is the same as GDX.

Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) tracks silver mining companies with $3.7 billion in assets. Average volume runs around 2 million shares per day at a 0.65% expense ratio.

Wheaton Precious Metals, Pan American Silver, First Majestic. These companies benefit twice. Once from silver prices going up, again from industrial demand for solar panels and electronics.

Amplify Junior Silver Miners ETF (SILJ) is the smallest and wildest of the bunch. Just $2.6 billion in assets, but very active recently, with 7 million shares changing hands daily.

At 0.65%, you're buying micro-cap silver explorers. High risk. High potential reward. Not for the faint of heart.

Which One Makes Sense

GLD and SLV track metal prices directly. You get exactly what gold and silver do, minus the expense ratio.

GDX and SIL offer 2-3x leverage to metal prices on the upside. They also amplify losses when metals drop.

GDXJ and SILJ are for aggressive plays only. These can swing 5-10% in a single session.

The macro backdrop still strongly favors metals. Central banks are still buying. The dollar's still weak. Goldman Sachs has gold going to $4,900 next year.

If you want simple exposure, stick with GLD or SLV. If you want leverage and can handle volatility, the mining ETFs make sense. If you're feeling aggressive, the junior miners are there.

A quick roundup of stories you might have missed this week:

One lucky junior miner, Prospector Metals, saw its stock rocket 875% year-to-date after hitting a monster 288 g/t gold intercept, proving that sometimes drilling holes in the ground does pay off spectacularly. Investing News Network

Gold just smashed through the psychological $4,000 barrier like the Kool-Aid Man through a wall, hitting $4,014.60 and leaving analysts scrambling to update their price targets. CNBC

Silver's having its own party at $50.20 per ounce, doubling from January's $28.92 and making gold's gains look almost modest in comparison. CBS News

Florida treasure hunters struck the motherload with over 1,000 gold and silver coins worth $1 million from the 1715 Spanish fleet wreck, proving that X still marks the spot 310 years later. NBC News

Czech archaeologists uncovered hundreds of priceless Celtic gold and silver coins at a "secret site" in Bohemia, making metal detectorists everywhere weep with envy. Fox News

China's central bank just extended its gold buying streak to 11 consecutive months, apparently treating the precious metal like a Netflix subscription they forgot to cancel (except they definitely didn't forget). Discovery Alert

Poland's central bank is hoarding gold faster than millennials collect houseplants, adding another 49 tonnes in Q1 2025 and blowing past their 20% reserve target to hit 21%. Money Metals

That’s a wrap for today, folks. Have a great rest of your weekend and I’ll see you on Tuesday morning.

Before you go, please take a moment to rate today’s GoldBuzz and tell us how we did.

Rick Adams
Founder, GoldBuzz
rick@goldbuzz.com