Gold mining stocks is an excellent way to invest in the gold market. Gold-based stocks are not as pure of a play as buying gold futures or a gold ETF, but it is still a solid and probably more conservative investment approach than the more risky gold futures.

The price of gold is your only concern when investing in gold futures, but more factors can affect the price of a gold mining stock than just the price of gold.


Gold stocks can move with the overall market. If the stock market is trending lower, gold stocks could still be under pressure even if the price of gold is moving higher.

Generally, gold stocks will move higher if the price of gold is trending higher. The larger gold companies are typically the safer and better bet when buying gold stocks. There are numerous small companies with little operating history that make up the very speculative group of gold mining stocks. They can often fail to participate in rallies, as they are less well-known and sometimes very questionable companies.

Below are the main publicly traded gold producers in the United States. They are the largest and probably the more conservative investments in the industry. I don’t recommend speculating in the gold penny stocks. They are usually nothing but trouble.

• Barrick Gold (ABX)
• Goldcorp Inc (GG)
• Newmont Mining (NEM)