As of Friday, the NYSE ARCA Gold Bugs Index , which trades under the symbol HUI, had nearly doubled since its January low. The index far out-performed the yellow metal itself, which increased in the low double digits.

However, as one expert points out, while the hard money community followed the rise every step of the way, the public is totally unaware. " Mainstream media and leading economists throughout 2015 ridiculed gold "bugs," said Marc Faber , editor of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report . "They now find it embarrassing to talk and write about gold stocks, which are up by approximately 100% in 2016." 

A quick search of Google News suggests that Faber is right. Entry of a range of key "gold" and "stock" related words into the search engine revealed not a single prominently ranked story dealing with the breadth of the index's* broad-based rise, which was led by issues ranging from Barrick to Kinross, Agnico and many more.