The strength of the Russell 2000 this week cannot be denied.  The index, and small stocks generally, posted heady gains even as their larger peers seemed ready to turn over.  But is it really the paradigm shift some commentators suggest?  Does it signal an increased risk appetite by investors, or a broadening of the rally?
At [...]

VanEck Market Vectors Junior Gold Mining ETF (GDXJ) has only been on the market for 7 trading days, but in this limited timeframe it has outperformed its large cap peer, the standard Market Vectors Gold Mining ETF (GDX) by over 2%.

That's not a bad start at all, and it would have been much better if [...]

Van Eck's new junior gold mining ETF (NYSE:GDXJ) is slated to begin trading today.  The ETF is based on Van Eck's junior gold mining index (MVGDXJ on Bloomberg), which tracks the following companies:
 

Security Name
Percentage Weigthing

Andean Resources Ltd
2.639373%

Avoca Resources Ltd
1.753983%

Dominion Mining Ltd
1.108520%

Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd
3.045051%

Medusa Mining Ltd
1.547658%

St Barbara Ltd
2.025922%

Alamos Gold Inc
4.262931%

Aurizon Mines Ltd
2.817565%

Colossus Minerals Inc
1.047307%

Detour Gold Corp
1.490398%

European [...]

Peak-to-trough, the market meltdown lopped off over 50%  from the Russell Microcap Index (see weekly chart of ETF above).   The charts look even worse for many individual equities, particularly on the OTC BB.  Remember that OTC BB stocks are excluded from the Russell Microcap Index, which is really a blend between microcaps and smallcaps.
There are [...]