Stay away from an implied bet on gold by buying mining company stocks, Dennis Gartman said Monday on CNBC's "Fast Money."
"I hate them," he said. "There's no reason in the world to own a miner at this point."
Gartman, a commodities trader and editor of The Gartman Letter, warned against a derivative play on the precious metal.
"The bet is always to own gold," he said. "Why would you own the miners at this point, exposing yourself to management problems, exposing yourself to hedging problems, exposing yourself to Mother Nature's problems, exposing yourself to miners unions' problems?"
Gartman backed a direct play on gold.
"If you're going to make the implied bet on gold, bet on gold," he said. "There will come a time, some point in the future, when the miners will outperform gold itself."
In case there was any doubt, Gartman reiterated his view.
"You don't want to own the miners, and you really, really, really don't want to own the juniors," he said.
