Investors Running from Gold in Droves

Investors Running from Gold in Droves (Bloomberg)

A recent Bloomberg survey found that investors are fleeing the barbarous relic as if it were… barbarous. Specifically, the holdings in the 14 largest exchange-traded products “ETPs” — which include exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) — were down 31 percent since the start of January. That dip represents $69.5 billion of ETP funds removed from gold investments. And it’s the first annual decrease in funds since they began getting tracked in 2003. Furthermore, the Bloomberg survey also found that investors were dumping their gold-backed trading products at the fastest pace since 1932. The reason?  According to Robin Bhar, an analyst with Societe Generale SA who’s been ranked by Bloomberg as the most-accurate precious-metals forecaster over the past eight quarters, “All the bullish factors we had pushing gold higher in the last 12 years are now going in reverse.” And she followed that quote up with this: “There will be more ETF selling in 2014 as the price goes lower.” Clearly, investors need to take a wait-and-see approach before getting back into gold.