If you look at the charts for the price of Gold over the past ten years, the results can look like a kid’s drawing of a mountain. From 2005 we had the steady ascent before the markets peaked at around July 2011. At that time the price per ounce was a vertigo inducing $1,837.67, and now, steadily we’ve been coming down the other side for the past few years. Last week the price was back down around $1,077 an ounce.
The last ten years, as a result, have seen both the boom and bust of the international metal markets. And that’s entirely down to the wider economic factors that have firstly pulled people towards and then pushed them away from the precious metals.
The financial crisis of 2008, and the subsequent recovery is largely what caused the rise in the price of gold. Investors flocked to the safe-haven of the shiny asset when all chaos broke out, and as a result the price skyrocketed (see 2011). But now things are arguably more stable, with the US even considering raising interest rates because the economy looks in such good shape. As a result gold is back in the gutter, with prices hitting a six-year low.
At the beginning of 2015 some analysts were suggesting the price would be back up, but the economic slowdown in China arguably lifted the price in the short-term but now it is back down.
What do you do with gold?
Gold is unique among the metals, because it is largely bereft of purpose other than being a yardstick for price and a tangible stock asset. You can’t eat it, it isn’t a cheap conductor, it doesn’t refine into a wonder-material… at best it’s a very shiny doorstop that you wouldn’t let out of your sight.
Platinum on the contrary has a range of industrial uses, from glass production to catalytic converters, crucibles and computer components. Silver also has a heap of uses too, from electronic applications through to medical equipment. It is because of these secondary uses that the markets for Silver and Platinum won’t fall as fast or as steeply as that of Gold.
But at the moment, where gold is concerned, we are arguably tumbling down the other side of the mountain, the dizzy heights of gold prices in 2011 nothing more than a happy metallic memory. At the beginning of 2015 some analysts were suggesting the price would be back up, but the economic slowdown in China arguably lifted the price in the short-term but now it is back down.
Next Year and Beyond
So as 2015 slowly winds down, one can’t help but start to look at where gold is going to be next year. Well, the majority of predictions point to us coming all the way down the other side of that mountain, with prices staying low as global economies such as the US grow in strength, and China gathers pace again.
It means that fewer investors will look to the safe-haven of those shiny yellow bars, and instead to traditionally riskier assets for quicker returns.
At fractalerts, however, we play the long game. And with good reason. Our system number crunches all the historical data available for the metal markets – not just the last ten years. We look for patterns in those sums of data, and when we get them, we alert our subscribers to them. What sets us apart, however, is that we place the exact same trade we alert our subscribers to – helping everyone to make the most of the metal markets.
So regardless of where gold is going in the long run, our alerts will lead you in the right direction. If you want to maximise the metal markets so your investments stay golden, click here for more information.
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