"The gold-mining sector is currently a long way from being 'overbought' and over-valued. In fact, by some measures it was recently as 'oversold' as it ever gets. The historical cases cited above would therefore be relevant if a general equity bear market were to begin in the near future............................. On a related matter, the only times when the owners of gold-mining stocks need to fear a general equity bear market are those times when the gold-mining sector has trended upward with the broad stock market during the 6-12 months prior to the start of the general equity bear market. Consequently, in the unlikely event that the current bull market in US equities continues for another 6-12 months and gold-mining stocks trend upward during that period, the gold-mining sector will then be vulnerable to the downward pull of a general equity decline." http://www.safehaven.com/article/36374/gold-stocks-during-an-equity-bear-market