Episode summary
How to Invest in Gold Stocks and ETFs Right Now
Zacks Market Edge
· · 52 min · Hosts: Tracey Ryniec, Mark Zinski, Neena Mishra, Ethan Feller
Summary
Gold has surged back into focus after one of its strongest months since 2008, and the host argues the bigger opportunity right now is in gold miners rather than physical gold alone. She says miners have already begun to reflect the higher gold price, with stronger free cash flow, record earnings, dividends, and share buybacks making the sector more attractive than bullion for investors who want operating leverage.
The host compares the main ways to play the trade: physical gold ETFs, large-cap miner ETFs like GDX, junior miner ETFs like GDXJ, and individual names. She notes that gold has outperformed the S&P 500 over long periods, but the miners have lagged because they are businesses with costs, execution risk, and exposure to inflation, accidents, and geopolitical disruptions. Even so, she argues that the current setup favors the bigger miners, since they offer more stability and better cash generation than the juniors.
She highlights Newmont and Agnico Eagle as examples, pointing to strong revenue growth, healthy cash flow metrics, and low-yielding but real shareholder returns. Her bottom line is that the cycle still looks favorable for gold, with the basket approach preferred for most investors, while small-cap miners remain much more volatile and require more homework.
Key takeaways
- The host says gold miners are starting to outperform gold itself because higher bullion prices are finally flowing through to free cash flow and earnings.
- GDX is favored over single names for investors who want a basket of large-cap miners with more stability and dividends.
- GDXJ has not yet delivered the usual junior-miner upside, which the host says shows investors are still favoring safety over speculation.
- The host says Newmont and Agnico Eagle both have strong cash generation, but Agnico trades at richer valuation metrics than Newmont.
- The host thinks gold still has room to run and says a $4,700 gold price is already enough to support attractive miner economics.
Notable quotes
“good things are going on with the gold miners right here”
“they have very good free cash flows, record earnings, and with gold staying elevated above that 4,000 an ounce level, it should mean good things going forward”
“the bigger upside will be in the miners because these are actual businesses and you're going to get some dividends and share buybacks in return”
“this is when you want to own the miners and that's why I like them here and that's why I own them”
How the episode opens
Stocks, bonds, ETFs, straight out of downtown Chicago. This is Zach's Market Edge. Welcome to Zach's Market Edge, the podcast about investing in your life.
I'm your host, Tracy Reinick, and this week I'm going solo again to talk about one of my favorite topics, the gold miners. Now, we haven't talked about them in a couple of months because they've had had a bit of a pullback over the last, say, 6 months or so, but they're back in it because gold is rising again. And um I wanted to cover them because good things are going on with the gold miners right here.
Um they have very good free cash flows, record earnings, and with gold staying elevated above that 4,000 an ounce level, it should mean good things going forward through the end of this year at a minimum. So, we're going to take a look at what gold miners should you be investing in and should you just be buying the ETFs instead? and we're going to take a deeper dive into one of my favorite metrics on the gold miners that could help you kind of visualize and see what's going on behind the scenes with that free cash flow with these miners.
So, um yeah, gold is where it is. It's not yet back to its all-time high. So, it hit its all-time high of around 5,500 an ounce at the end of January here in 2026, and then it's been down ever since.
Uh, but did trade slightly below 4,000 an ounce, but I mean really slightly like 390 or something is where it went and then it got a rebound. Now, it has been having here in August of 2026 one of its best months or if not the best month for the yellow metal since 2008.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- gold performance
- gold etfs
- gold mining stocks
- stock selection
Watch the episode
Watch “How to Invest in Gold Stocks and ETFs Right Now” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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