Gold Miner ETFs See Heavy Volume as Stocks Hit by Algo Crash

August 1st at 1:32pm by John Spence

Some gold miner stocks may have been impacted by Wednesday’s market disruption reportedly caused by computer-driven algorithmic trading programs.

ETFs tracking gold miner shares were extremely volatile Wednesday on heavy trading volume.

For example, the $8 billion Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX) dropped sharply at the open but then rallied back to fractionally negative for the session. GDX was down 4% earlier Wednesday and trading volume was above-average. [Comparing Gold Miner ETFs]

Meanwhile, volume spiked in a leveraged ETF for the sector, Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: NUGT). Trading was about 5 times the daily average for the trailing three months. The leveraged fund was down about 3% in recent trading but pared its earlier loss.

Scott Freeze at Street One Financial said top gold miner ETF holdings Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) were both “crushed” earlier in the session before recovering.

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