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.

The sixth edition of Gold Investor discusses gold’s role as a liquid alternative to stocks, bonds and cash, and highlights its ability to improve portfolio risk-adjusted returns for investors – even if they hold other alternative assets.
The latest edition (Volume 6, June 2014) includes three articles:
I. How gold improves alternative asset performance
II. Gold: metal by design, currency by nature
III. The most liquid of all ‘liquid alts’

In this fifth edition of Gold Investor we analyse gold’s effectiveness as a risk mitigating strategy, particularly relevant in today’s interconnected global economy.
It includes three articles: I. Hedging EM risks? Think gold; II. Can gold replace bonds in balancing equity risk?; III. A perspective on gold as a hedge in an expanding financial system.

We view the direction of the US dollar as well as the strength of Asian demand as key indicators of gold sentiment. Further, potentially reduced mine production at lower prices should, in our view, limit the downside. Finally, our research shows that gold should not be looked at in isolation but as part of portfolio and that a small strategic allocation can reduce the long-term level of risk.

For centuries gold has played an integral role in the monetary system as a unit of exchange and a monetary anchor. While gold no longer plays a formal role in the existing system of floating exchange rates and fiat money, gold has retained several currency characteristics.

The merits of gold as an investment receives a lot of attention. Investors and market commentators fervently debate whether it could or should be used to protect against inflation, to hedge US dollar exposure, or even tail risk events. And while there is enough literature for and against gold’s roles…