Gold’s strong start to the new year

Trading around $1,946/oz earlier this week, the gold price remains short of the all-time high achieved last August, when it hit an intra-day high of $2,075/oz.

Despite the dip since then gold investors are sitting on tidy profits. Gold rose by 22% in 2020 and has gained 65% since August 2018. It faces two key issues in 2021. Firstly, the vaccines, which have taken some of the shine off gold, says The Times.

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Secondly, bitcoin has emerged as an alternative hedge against inflation. The cryptocurrency’s surge may be diverting funds that would otherwise flow into precious metals, Delano Saporu of New Street Advisors Group told CNBC’s Lizzy Gurdus. Investors looking for a hedge against government currency debasement now have more options to choose from.

Still, if 2021 brings the inflationary scare MoneyWeek has been fretting about for some time, then gold is likely to gain new impetus. This week’s jump is giving gold bugs hope. A store of wealth for thousands of years, there is still nothing quite like gold.

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Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019.

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere.

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful.

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.