Interesting, thanks Nordesmic. I'm not sure whether the fund's...

Interesting, thanks Nordesmic. I'm not sure whether the fund's mandate allows for off-market transactions, if that's what you were suggesting? I'm fairly sure they are mandated to complete the re-balance in the afternoon match. I've certainly never heard of a similar circumstance, and I can't find any mention of it in the prospectus.

One interesting note re: GDX, is they do not specifically mention the date of the calculation in the prospectus, like they do for GDXJ. See P88 and 89 here:

http://vaneck.onlineprospectus.net/...ata/LIB_SummaryProspectus/MVHAPRO/MVHAPRO.pdf

For GDX, they mention that the modification process date is "taken from the close of trading on the second Friday of the rebalance month". ie: 11 Dec. If this is the actual calculation date, then there is still a live chance for RRL to be included in GDX. If they use the same date as GDXJ (30 Nov) then i'm afraid that boat has sailed.

Just on your comment "Even if it got to US$750M market cap I think that probably has to be maintained for a quarter or two before they put them into the GDX so probably unlikely." - To the best of my knowledge, as long as they meet the criteria, the fund is mandated to buy them, unless of course there is a specific reason that might put the integrity of the fund at risk. So, if the calculation date is in fact 11 Dec, and RRL meet the criteria, then I expect them to be included.

Had a quick look. they meet all the volume criteria comfortably, it's just the market cap. Bloomberg data has them capped at AUD1.015b , AUDUSD = 0.7334 = 744m. Could be very interesting.

@MetalMad might be able to clarify a) whether off market transactions are allowed, and b) what the calculation date for adding/removing stocks to/from GDX.

cheers