http://seekingalpha.com/article/317070-gold-lessons-learned-in-2011-and-implications-for-2012

'..2011 certainly was a difficult year for gold bugs. Gold barely held onto its gains for the year while Silver went parabolic and eventually fell to negative on the year. Mining stocks? Don’t ask. The large caps (GDX) are currently down 17% on the year while the mid-tiers (GDXJ) are down 41% and the explorers (GLDX) are down 44%. In our last commentary we discussed the equities with respect to investing and speculating. By now, you should know that most mining stocks are speculations and do not perform consistently, even in a raging bull market....'