The Evil Diaries: “are we not coming to the end of the great junior resources stock bear market?”

Following up on my short USD/EUR comment yesterday a reader comments:

“I am sure that you are aware of this, but the ETFS 3x Short EUR Long USD fund would be a simple [albeit risky] way to enable individual investors to take advantage of an appreciation of the USD against the Euro: http://www.etfsecurities.com/retail/uk/en-gb/products/product/etfs-3x-short-eur-long-usd-seu3-lse”

I do not know what makes the reader sure – but I appreciate the courtesy. So I telephoned him and he remarked upon this ETF’s usefulness. I countered by remarking that I was unclear what the dealing costs on this vehicle would be and that although I respect Warren Buffett’s don’t touch an investment which is not seen as sound for ten years rule, I am also keen on banking a profit. So dealing costs count. I remarked to my informant that the round trip (i.e. market maker turn plus brokerage) quoted at ETX (I have not checked the others) for the September 2015 position is roughly 7 ten thousandths. Say one decided to roll the September position one would still be behaving much more economically than one could do elsewhere. Does anyone wish to disagree?

*****

I have held Minco (MIO) for donkey’s years. So when it popped up to 2p this morning on news that the Chinese might get involved in their manganese project I was tempted to take a profit. But I didn’t: are we not coming to the end of the great junior resources stock bear market? There can’t be many investors left to sell out.