After experiencing a year of extraordinary volatility during 2013 the gold miners (Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (ARCA:GDX)) have turned downright dormant during the past few weeks:
For 9 consecutive trading sessions the GDX has traded within less than a 2% intraday range and for the past two months GDX has remained well contained within a 10% trading range.
This is the lowest realized volatility on record for the Gold Miners ETF:
The natural ebb and flow of the market cycle results in transitions from periods of high volatility to periods of low volatility and back again. The current period of ultra-low volatility in the gold miners is sure to eventually give way to a large directional move – the descending triangle which has formed during the past couple of months might offer some clues as to which direction this sector is headed next:
A breakdown below ~$23.25 would indicate that a move down to the December 2013 lows could be in store for the gold miners.