For the first time in a while, commodities trader Dennis Gartman expects gold miners to outperform the precious metal itself.
"It's the first time in a long while that I actually think the gold miners can outperform gold," he said. "For five years now, the gold miners have underperformed very badly. But over the course of the last several months, it's interesting to watch the GDX."
On CNBC's "Fast Money," Gartman said that the gold mining exchange-traded fund was giving the gold ETF a run for its money.
"It's actually begun to gain relative to the GLD," he said. "It's begun to gain relative gold futures. It's unusual. I think it's long overdue. And if you are the public, rather than trading gold futures, you're probably going to be better off trading the gold mining stocks."
(Read more: It's a 'stock-picking market,' Mike Murphy says)
As for the precious metal, Gartman's play was simple:
"Buy more."
Gartman said he was impressed by the day's gold price action.
"You walked in, it gapped higher right off the bat at $1,315, never looked back. Very impressive action," he said. "I'm not a gold bug. Everybody should know that by now. I think of gold as nothing more than another currency."
Still, he added, it was "impressive" that even as crude oil fell sharply in the afternoon, gold still gained.
"You have to like it," Gartman said. "Gold wants to go higher, probably predicated on a continued expectation that the Fed will continue to expand reserves, and so shall too other central banks."
