Mining stocks had a rough day yesterday to say the least. Popular mining ETF GDX fell almost 11% yesterday, hitting all-time lows.

Does falling 10% or more happen very often? The above chart looks at Gold Bugs Index (HUI) and looks at times when it fell 10% or more in a single day. As you can see, this happened several times during the financial crisis. Often times people think owning Gold or Mining stocks during a time of crisis is a good idea. This sure wasn’t true during the financial crisis!

If one is inclined to do some bottom fishing, what should one look for?

One thing to look for would be a reversal pattern or a bullish wick following a large decline in the mining sector. I would also pay close attention to the Gold/Silver ratio and the GDX/GDXJ ratio too.