Firstly my apologies for somewhat neglecting this site for the past couple of weeks - my excuse is that I was enjoying a welcome holiday break in India and other matters got in the way of regular article updates. You may also be aware that I write also for some other sites and these may take priority as it is from these I earn a modest living, whereas this site is completely free of charge to access - something of a labour of love as I have been hugely interested in precious metals from my early days as a mining engineer when I worked on some of the world’s then largest gold and platinum mines.
However, if you do wish to keep abreast of my thinking on precious metals, and on gold in particular I commend you to the sharpspixley.com website and my latest articles on that - the most recent being LAWRIE WILLIAMS: So what will gold do next year? - please click on the link to read in full. In it I’ve taken a look at a recent WSJ poll of investment banking analysts which actually suggests a likely pretty flat gold price in the year ahead, although the tone of the original article was decidedly negative - as is much mainstream coverage of precious metals. And then I look at a number of factors which could result in a rather more positive year for gold ahead.
It’s not so much that gold has really underperformed this year. The fall in the US dollar gold price year to date at around 10% represents almost exactly the rise in the US dollar index over the period. Indeed gold has actually outperformed most other metal and mineral commodities year to date. It is also still in positive territory in a number of other major currencies - so its not all doom and gloom for everyone. With huge potential economic and global geopolitical black swans out there my conclusion is ‘don’t write gold off yet’.