There's a Rush for Gold ETFs
Have Gold Prices Found a Floor?
You can learn a lot about an investor from whether they invest in gold, and how they do it.
As people pile into gold exchange-traded funds at the fastest rate in more than a year, it's clear that the precious metal's appeal as the ultimate safe haven now extends well beyond the universe of dollar-doubters and doomsayers otherwise known as ''gold bugs.''
Gold is up almost 6 percent this year, compared with a 6 percent loss for the S&P 500-stock index. This is a major turnaround from the past two years, when gold ETFs were down 34 percent, and $33 billion flowed out of those funds.
Given gold's performance, it's not a huge surprise that gold ETFs took in $1.8 billion over what has been a volatile start for markets in 2016. What's intriguing is how gold ETFs aimed at very different investors have shared in those inflows.