So far, the newly created option market for the ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSE Arca: SGOL) offers very few, um, options for users.

As the miners ETF space becomes increasingly crowded, which vehicle – if any – will emerge as the next GDX? Also: Can base metals make a comeback?

As the price of gold vacillated this year, princes and paupers found themselves oddly joined at the hip. I'm talking about traders and would-be investors in silver and platinum.

Editor Lara Crigger digs into the details about Global X’s new silver miner ETF, the first of its kind.

• Do NYMEX and COMEX do a good enough job?
• Could position limits hurt bona fide hedgers?
• Why should gold manipulation theorists be wary of position limits?

There are a lot of disappointed investors wondering why silver hasn't done a better job catching up to gold. You can see their predicament in a chart plotting silver's relative strength. Think of it as a gold/silver ratio turned upside down

Last week, silver decided to thrust above the toppiness that caused so many traders to fret (see "Silver Topping Out?"), only to score a fresh double-top.

Traders are a worrisome sort. Their latest headache is silver. Money managers, on the other hand, love the metal. More than 98 percent of the open silver positions held by funds are now long. That's a record going back more than three years. And that's why traders are reaching for their aspirin bottles. They recall how lopsided long positions precede market tops.