{"id":1197892,"date":"2020-07-24T14:16:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T19:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1030831"},"modified":"2020-07-26T14:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T19:16:00","slug":"forget-the-gold-price-copper-was-most-profitable-covid-19-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1197892","title":{"rendered":"Forget the gold price, copper was most profitable covid-19 trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The gold price is approaching all-time highs above $1,900 an ounce. <\/p>\n

Investors are showering  gold ETFs with money, which, if ever redeemed for physical bullion, would suck up the output of all the world\u2019s gold mines for more than a year.<\/p>\n

The copper price? It\u2019s hardly moved from its 2020 opening levels. The bellwether metal looks likely to be rebuffed by the mythical $3 per pound level (last averaged in 2014) for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n

As for copper ETFs \u2013 more money flowed into GLD since you started reading this post than the total assets the world\u2019s only two copper ETFs have under management.<\/p>\n

\"Forget<\/figure>\n

However, if during the depths of covid-19 panic you kept your wits about you while all others were losing theirs, your returns are squishing gold bugs.<\/p>\n

Since copper ETFs are not really a viable option (not liquid at any temperature) and futures may be better left to managed money, copper stocks have to do it for you. <\/p>\n

And they sure did. <\/p>\n

If you picked up specialists Freeport (NYSE:FCX), Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) and First Quantum (TSE:FM) four months ago, you\u2019re enjoying plus-60 returns. <\/p>\n

FCX, which regularly features on the most active trading lists, nearly doubled from mid-March (undoubtedly enjoying an an extra boost from its Papua gold business). <\/p>\n

Lumbering diversifieds Anglo American (OTCMKTS: NGLOY) and Vale (NYSE:VALE) beat gold\u2019s no. 1 and 2 and even thorny Glencore (OTCMKTS: GLNCY) matched big gold\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

Granted; it\u2019s 2020 and this is hindsight. But eventually gold fever \u2013 and covid-19 \u2013 will break.  <\/p>\n

Copper was trading at $2.88 a pound on Friday \u2013 the price would need to gain another 58% to hit its 2011 all-time record (for gold it\u2019s probably Monday). <\/p>\n

That gives you plenty of time to play the copper market. <\/p>\n

For the bullion boys, the new all-time high party is almost over.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investing in top copper mining stocks during the covid-19 meltdown handily beat returns on gold majors – FCX surged 92% in four months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,949,369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1197892"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198176,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197892\/revisions\/1198176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1197892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1197892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}