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Admittedly, it's a little early to test the mettle of the brand-new Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE Arca: GDXJ). After all, real-time trading only started on Nov.11. But with yesterday's big gold run-up—COMEX spot climbed $22.50 an ounce to $1,138.60—we've got the better part of a trading week behind us. In a dynamic environment, no less. We might as well compare the fund's performance to other gold investments to see how it's faring. Think of it as sort of a stress test. GDXJ's underlying index mines for constituent companies with smaller market capitalizations and outputs than those tracked by the long-extant Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE Arca: GDX). Juniors are traditionally exploration companies; many, in fact, haven't reached the production phase yet. Indeed, there may be uncertainties about the size and yield potential of their properties. The junior index comprises 38 companies, concentrated in issues with market caps between $200 million and $1 billion. Compare that with the benchmark for the senior GDX fund: The majority of its 30 issues carry market caps of at least $6 billion. Since Veterans Day, the spot COMEX (GCX) contract has vacillated $32.60 between settlement highs and lows. Start-to-finish, gold's had a 2.2 percent run to the upside. Meantime, the SPDR Gold Shares Trust (NYSE Arca: GLD), which tracks London gold fixings, racked up a 1.9 percent gain. The GDX fund appreciated 3.1 percent, while newbie GDXJ rose 4.2 percent. Comparative Performance 
It's fair to say, at this point at least, that GDXJ is twice as volatile as gold, but it's harder to define a distinction between the two miner ETFs. GDX actually sank further than the junior fund on Nov. 12, but lagged thereafter. Time will tell how things shake out for the two mining ETFs in the volatility department. In the meantime, the new fund seems to be enjoying good liquidity. Its pennywide (.04 percent) spreads are pretty decent for a fresh issue, compared with the .02 percent spread for GDX. With an average daily turnover of 2.5 million shares, the junior ETF trades more than a fifth of its big brother's volume. It would take a trade equivalent to 30 percent of GDXJ's average daily volume to move its market 1 percent. That's not bad, considering the liquidity index of GDX is 32 percent. It's still early, but so far GDXJ has managed to attract enough interest to make it a viable gold-based investment. Check it out.
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