March 28, 2024

Looking for a Top in Gold

Investors and analysts alike are looking at the record prices of gold last year and trying to predict the future. Last year the price of gold rose by more than 27%, contributing to an increase of more than 400% over the past decade.

Another year of double digit gains in the gold price has many experts considering whether prices will continue their upward trajectory, or whether there are warning signs for a potential top. The predictions are as varied as their sources:

  1. According to Goldman Sachs, gold will top in 2012 at $1,750 an ounce.
  2. John Nadler at Kitco.com predicts that gold will cap by the end of 2011.
  3. The CEO of U.S. Gold, Rob McEwen believes that the market is “a third of the way” to a mania.
  4. Jim Rodgers estimates that the long bull market in gold will result in a huge bubble for the commodities market as a whole—and he thinks we’re halfway there already.
  5. Scott Redler at T3Live.com predicts that if the price gap is truly filled, gold will stay range bound between $1,320 and $1,400 for a time before mustering up a bigger rally.

Everyone is eying the market and trying to decide what it is going to do next so that they can react accordingly. Surprisingly though, most investors do not own their own gold and have never owned it.

According to The Street, you’re much more likely to see people selling gold than buying it. Still, the media excitement about gold prices, not to mention the prices themselves, is generating new investors. The SPDR Gold Shares added 155 tons this year, for example. Longtime investors are waiting for the day when everyone jumps on the bandwagon, resulting in the gold bubble they’re currently trying to predict.