A one day delay in the release of the bank bailout plan for the United States had the bulls and the bears battling to a draw during Monday trading on the Canadian markets. For the taile of the tape, the TSX Exchange added a modest 0.44%, while the TSX Gold Index fell back 4.4% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 0.91% with the declining issuers edging out the advancers by a 350 to 334 margin on 155 million shares traded.

I dropped in on the Cambridge House gold show in Vancouver this weekend. It was busy. People were generally upbeat and felt smart about the bargains they loaded up on during the recent rout. It was then that I realized that one gold ratio would lead to lower gold bullion prices while leading gold shares higher.