Tag: gold investing

Lack Of Demand, Not Manipulation Is Behind The Gold Price Drop

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The Gold Report: This year has been difficult for gold investors. The price went from a high of almost $1,800/ounce ($1,800/oz) to where it is now, in the mid-$1,200/oz range. You have written extensively about the supply and demand forces of precious metals. What is behind the drop in the gold price?

Jeffrey Christian: The single most important factor has been a massive decline in the investment demand for gold. In 2013 investors have bought about 30 million ounces (30 Moz) gold on a net basis globally. That's down from about 39 Moz in 2012 and 31 Moz in 2011, but it is still at a very high level compared to historic investment demand. The net purchases are down 24% because some investors are selling gold.

TGR: Are they putting their money into other investment vehicles or are they sitting on their cash? Continue reading "Lack Of Demand, Not Manipulation Is Behind The Gold Price Drop" →

Gold Chart of The Week

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Each Week Longleaftrading.com will be providing us a chart of the week as analyzed by a member of their team. We hope that you enjoy and learn from this new feature.

Weekly Gold Report (October 14th through October 18th)

What can be said about the week that lies ahead? More of the same sounds about right. After Democrats and Republicans spent another full calendar week bickering and positioning, we seem to be no closer to a deal than we were in the prior week, and the threat of a default on debt continues to loom. Continue reading "Gold Chart of The Week" →

Casey's Louis James Warns: 'Don't Try to Time the Market'

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The Gold Report: You warn investors against trying to time the market. If even experts don't know a bottom until it's behind them, how do regular investors know when to invest, when to buy the next tranches and when to cut losses?

Louis James: The wisdom of not trying to time the market is tried and true. Benjamin Graham said the same thing 60 years ago. I shouldn't have to defend this premise. Even though investors all know it, they fervently wish it weren't so; they just can't help themselves.

You can't time the market. A bureaucrat in Washington can open his mouth and send the price of gold up or down 5% in an afternoon.

Fortunately, we can look for value. Value tends to be slippery in the junior sector when you have a bunch of companies that, as Doug Casey famously says, are little better than burning matches. They have no income. Even the biggest players in the field are so volatile that Benjamin Graham would never touch them.

However, there are things that we can look for. We can compare companies to their peers. We can look at the ounces in the ground and see if something is out of whack. We can look at cash in the bank. The market is so beat up now that some companies with viable projects are trading for cash or less. It's actually possible in a market this beat up to make relatively low-risk acquisitions. Continue reading "Casey's Louis James Warns: 'Don't Try to Time the Market'" →

Are Gold Equities on the Cusp of an Upswing?

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The Gold Report: Ron, the Federal Reserve has decided to continue quantitative easing (QE) for the foreseeable future. Gold has risen steadily since that news. Is that what you predicted the Fed would do?

Ron Struthers: It is not that hard to predict the Fed's behavior when you understand what it's trying to do and how it's trying to do it. I do not take what they say literally, except within the context of its goals. The Fed is trying to instill confidence in the economy because of massive U.S. debt and its future debt appetite. The economy needs to improve for there to be higher tax receipts. We need foreign investment to finance the debt. If the Fed can convince Americans and those abroad that its bonds are the safest/most attractive, its stock market will have the best returns and that debt machine keeps running.

But the truth is that the economy is very weak. Employment is weak. Foreign investment has been fleeing. The Fed has to purchase $85 billion of debt a month because nobody else will. The Fed can't do this forever, and it knows it. It has to talk as if the economy is improving so the Fed debt purchases can end in the near future.

If you dig into what's really going on in the economy and markets, you'll find the underlying weakness that guarantees that QE will be here for a long time, as least as long as the markets themselves will allow it or are tricked into allowing it.

TGR: Why are Americans so complicit in this? Continue reading "Are Gold Equities on the Cusp of an Upswing?" →

Precious Metals Must Make a Stronger Statement Still

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Yesterday was an impulsive looking move and something of a statement in itself.  But now technically, the metals and miners need to gather themselves (after a potential pullback on profit taking) and make a real statement.

Yesterday was the booster stage (gap up), and another leg up from here would give the precious metals complex the velocity to do some real damage with respect to upside targets.  That is because important resistance zones are now at hand.  While a pullback would be normal, gold bugs obviously do not want to see a terminal velocity situation where yesterday’s momentum erodes beyond normal profit taking. Continue reading "Precious Metals Must Make a Stronger Statement Still" →