Technically Precious with Merv For week ending 18 March 2011

So, why hasn’t gold shot up through the roof with all that’s been going on lately?  It’s a good thing I’m a technician and don’t have to come up with a WHY, as I don’t have a clue why.  Let’s just go ahead and see where we are and possibly which way the wind is blowing.  But first, the Merv’s Venture 30 Index.

S&P/TSX Venture 30 Index

Since the development of my Merv’s Penny Arcade Index I have often been asked if there is an ETF based upon this Index that speculators can buy and take advantage of its spectacular performance.  Unfortunately there is no such ETF available.  Well, this week there was an announcement in the media that just might satisfy these speculators.

The news in this week’s media (well, one of the news) was the introduction of the Global X S&P/TSX Venture 30 Canada ETF traded on the NYSE Acra (and hopefully soon on the TSX) with the symbol TSXV.  This ETF is based upon the S&P/TSX Venture 30 Index, which is an Index composed of the 30 largest stocks (for want of a quick definition) traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (previously the Vancouver Exchange).  As the media mentions, the component stocks seem to be split 54%/46% between materials and energy stocks.  The materials, of course, include gold & silver stocks as appropriate.

Both the Index and the ETF seem to have started their trading history only this week so potential investors or speculators in the ETF have no historical data for technical or market analysis.  I have taken the liberty of developing my own Index based upon the Venture 30 component stocks and back dated the development to the start of 2008 with a value of 100.00.  This Index is a performance Index as it is based upon the average weekly price performance of each component stock without any weighting assigned.  One must understand that because of the method of calculating the Index, the performance of the Merv’s Index may not match exactly the performance of the S&P/TSX Index or the Global X ETF, but it should be a good indication of how these 30 stocks performed over the past 3 years and possibly a suggestion as to the possible on-going performance of the ETF.

Of course there is NO GUARANTEE that the past performance will continue or even ever come back again.  You enjoy and act at your own risk.

Shown here is a chart of the Merv’s Venture 30 Index and a technical information and ratings table for the Index component stocks.  I will be keeping this info up to date for my own use and maybe, if there is an interest, post it here from time to time.  Other than that I don’t know if I will be using it otherwise.  Always open for suggestions.  Since this Index includes energy and many other material stocks, other than a few gold and silver stocks, I am debating if I should include it in my Precious Metals Indices Table for readers weekly review of its performance.