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In the twelve months ending August 31st, gold has risen 46.5%, but the XAU Index of precious metal mining stocks climbed only 17.7%. By itself, that is a good rate of return for mining stocks, but not what one would expect given gold’s appreciation over this period.

May 30, 2011 – Bull markets do not move in a straight line, nor do the price of gold and silver.  Their price advances, and then retreats to ‘correct’ the previous advance. For the past four weeks, gold and silver have been going through one of these periodic price corrections. During these corrections, underlying supportRead more

February 12, 2011 – In precious metal bull markets, silver outperforms.  Its price climbs at a faster rate than gold’s price.  The reverse happens in bear markets.  Silver’s price drops at a faster rate than gold’s price.  The following chart of the gold/silver ratio illustrates this phenomenon. At the peak of the last precious metalRead more

December 4, 2010 – The scramble for physical gold and silver is intensifying.  People increasingly want to own the real thing, and not some paper substitute, all of which come with counterparty risk.  This conclusion is apparent from the following two charts of gold and silver forwards, which are based on data made available byRead more

December 1, 2010 – Both gold and silver demonstrated some spectacular performance yesterday, climbing 1.4% and 3.8% respectively from the previous day’s closing price.  November is the eighth month that gold has risen this year to generate its 26.5% year-to-date appreciation.  Silver has also risen eight months this year, and so far is up aRead more

November 9, 2010 – It has been just one month since I stated on King World News that the gold mining stocks had begun a new bull market.  The XAU Index of mining stocks closed that day at a new record high of 206.79.  It closed yesterday at 220.17, up 6.5% over this period. ThatRead more

September 13, 2010 – I am pleased to present the following article written by Mark Lundeen. He explains why the Barron’s mining stock average has outperformed the Dow Jones Industrials since 1920. The analysis excludes dividends on both averages, which in itself could be an interesting study. Nevertheless, his conclusions are thought provoking and worthRead more

July 29, 2010 – Much has been made recently of the news that the BIS last year completed a 380-tonne gold swap with an unnamed commercial bank. This BIS transaction intuitively strikes me as being hugely important.  Unfortunately, the BIS and the bank involved have disclosed too little information for any of us outside theRead more

June 1, 2010 – Numerous records continue to be broken by gold, including some longstanding ones that go back to the January 1980 peak.  Gold closed the month of May at a new record high against every major world currency except the Japanese yen. Various charts of the gold price in terms of major currenciesRead more

The IMF does not own gold; it owns claims to gold