Time for Sil to Be More Than the Number Two Guy

SIL, sector ETF dedicated to silver mining stocks, rightly get overlooked compared to GDX (ETF for senior gold miners) and GDXJ (junior gold miners) for a few reasons. First and foremost, SIL is such more thinly traded in terms of volume than both GDX and GDXJ. Silver miners in general have also been extremely disappointing at various intervals in recent years, even compared to the various failed rallies in gold miners. Hence, SIL is a ticker either overlooked or unknown to many a trader. 

Nonetheless, with both GDX and GDXJ reclaiming their respective 200-day simple moving averages in recent sessions, it begs the question of whether the silver miners will follow suit. 

On the SIL daily chart, below, note well-defined resistance just above spot price which bulls must clear, for starters, to make headway. But beyond that, the 200-day lurks above (yellow line), and makes for a logical initial target if the catch-up thesis does indeed come to fruition in early-2019. A few silver or silver-related individual miners of note: CDE EXK FSM WPM. 

As for equities, bulls are battling back off the opening lows but it is far from a rip-roaring rally at the moment. An afternoon rollover would be a rough way to kick off 2019. So, I am paying close attention to whether bulls can keep us comfortably above the morning lows the rest of the day.