Investment Insights

This latest edition of our Investment Commentary examines gold’s performance in 2015 and explores the factors that may influence gold in 2016.

Despite economic uncertainty in some regions, the gold price declined in the first half of 2015. While puzzling to some investors, this is consistent with market expectations that the risks could be contained. 

Trish Regan sits down with William Rhind, CEO of World Gold Trust Services, to talk about his outlook for the commodity in current market conditions.

This seventh edition of Gold Investor discusses gold’s positive link to economic growth, explore its value as a hedge in times of duress, and discuss the impact that ETFs have had on the gold market.

Gold is up by 9.2% so far this year. This surprised many market participants as most analysts predicted lower prices. Some investors took advantage of last year’s price correction to buy gold but investment demand has remained tepid. We consider that the current environment of high bond issuance, tight credit spreads and record low volatility continues to offer a prime opportunity for investors to add gold. In our view, gold can reduce overall portfolio risk and it is cheaper to implement than many volatility-based strategies.

This fourth edition of Gold Investor includes two articles: I. Why Invest in gold? Gold’s role in long term strategies; II. Gold and currencies: the evolving relationship with the US dollar.

The role of gold and its benefits have been largely debated within the investment community. Throughout its two articles, Gold Investor highlights the benefits of investing in gold in the context of investment portfolios and details the past, current and future relationship between gold and the US dollar.

The conversation among private wealth advisors is no longer about if they should invest in gold but rather, how much to invest. Bob Alderman, Managing Director for the World Gold Council, explains from Opal Financial Group's 2013 Family Office & Private Wealth Management Forum.

We also highlight that higher portfolio risk- consistent with a rotation out of cash or bonds into equities- warrants a higher strategic gold allocation.

Dr. Andrew Lilico, of Europe Economics, discusses his paper The use of Gold as Collateral for Eurozone Sovereign Debt. The paper assesses the World Gold Council’s proposals on gold as collateral for Eurozone sovereign debt, especially in the case of Italy and Portugal.