Top Uptrending Gold Stocks

Let's also not forget that some of the biggest players on Wall Street have been adding to their positions in gold. Well-known hedge fund managers such as John Paulson, George Soros and Leon Cooperman have been adding to their positions in the SPDR Gold Trust ETF.

Here 's a look at a number of uptrending gold stocks that are bucking the overall market trend downtrend and could be setting up to trade much higher.

If you're looking for the best and most liquid way to play the gold market (besides trading the futures), I would suggest you consider the SPDR Gold Trust ETF. This gold ETF is designed to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion. Plain and simple, if gold trades higher, so will this ETF. This exchanged-traded fund tracks the raw price of gold on a 1:10 price ratio, so you're pretty much going to capture the same moves that will happen in gold futures.

From a technical standpoint, the GLD is bouncing nicely off the 50-day moving average of $118.36 a share today. Market-players who're bullish on this ETF should watch for a breakout above $123.56 a share. If the GLD can push above that level, and especially close above that level, it could mean much higher prices are in store in the near future.

Another way to leverage up on going long gold is to buy the Deutsche Bank AG DB Gold Double Long ETF(DGP). Many investors would take issue with this recommendation because of the amount of volatility and slippage that can occur with leveraged ETFs, but let me just say for the record that this type of instrument is for trading only -- not for investing.

If you're looking for some gold miner stocks to play the potential uptrend in gold, I would suggest searching for the names that have some decent short interest. If we do get a nice push higher in gold, the heavily shorted names will experience some substantial short squeezes.

According to FactSet Research, gold stocks that show up on the most heavily shorted list of Amex stocks as measured by a percentage of their float include Seabridge Gold(SA) at 12%, NovaGold Resources(NG) at 6.4%, Great Basin Gold(GBG) at 5.6% and Golden Star Resources(GSS) at 5.1%. Keep in mind that some of these stocks are very speculative, but if gold is going to make a big run, you're going to have some good short-squeeze trading opportunities in these names. Two NYSE gold stocks that have had a substantial positive changes to their short position recently are Yamana Gold(AUY), which saw its short interest jump 108%, and Gold Fields(GFI), which saw its short interest soar 40%. Keep in mind that both of these companies' total short potions as a percentage of their float is still very small. However, the fact that shorts are adding aggressively to these stocks is worth noting. A more conservative and safer way to play the gold mining sector is to buy the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF(GDX). This ETF seeks to replicate as closely as possible the price and yield performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. Some of the top holdings of this fund are Newmont Minding(NEM) and Barrick Gold(ABX). To see more gold stock plays, such as Goldcorp(GG) and AngloGold Ashanti(AU), check out the Top Uptrending Gold Stocks of the Week portfolio on Stockpickr.

RELATED LINKS:

>>SAC Capital's Buy List for 2010

>>Breakout Stocks: Warner Chilcott, Alliance

>>5 Stocks With Rising Expectations

Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints