While precious metals have had an incredible run this year amid the coronavirus pandemic and generalized global economic uncertainty, a significant number of hedge funds are admonishing investors not to chase the gold market after the precious metal experienced a significant pullback continues to struggle to find support after the $2,000 an ounce level has proven to be formidable resistance following the drop.
One of the most recent voices to join the chorus of hedge funds is Mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners.
In a statement to U.K.-based Financial News, Mobius explained that investors should wait for a correction in gold before hopping into the market again.
“The safest investments are equities and precious metals such as gold. However, I would not advise buying gold or precious metals at this time until a price correction has taken place,” he said in the article.
After reaching nearly $2100 an ounce, gold plummeted to below $1875, before attempting a bounce toward the highs that failed, as sellers drove the price of the commodity back below $2000 once again, taking gold ETFs like GLD with it.
So where should investors look in the meantime?
Instead of gold, Mobius said that he would be examining companies “with strong balance sheets and growing earnings.”
Gold was hit with a fresh wave of selling pressure after the Federal Reserve failed to provide any new guidance on interest rate expectations and noted that curbing bond yields would likely fail to offer any benefits.
Mobius isn’t the only fund manager to raise concerns about the gold market. Tuesday, Bank of America detailed the results of its August Fund Manager Survey, which revealed that the gold market is the second most crowded asset in financial markets, only behind tech sector stocks, which have helped to catalyze the dramatic rally in the stock market after the March lows.
The report noted that of the total survey participants, 31% said that gold prices were overextended. This is the loftiest reading since 2011.
While investors may want to hold off on leaping into gold, for the time being, a move into silver is something many analysts are recommending instead.
“The sharp pullback in precious metals last week helped to weed out excess positioning from gold futures. Indeed, positioning data suggests that money managers substantially liquidated their gold futures length amid the pullback, placing the latest estimate of a position size in line with expectations given the number of traders long,” TD Securities strategists wrote recently. “Silver continues to hold a substantially cleaner positioning slate, which mitigates this risk for the white metal.”
ETF investors looking to get in on the silver action can look to funds like the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and the Aberdeen Standard Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR), two of the largest ETFs backed by holdings of physical silver. Meanwhile, for those investors looking for leverage, the VelocityShares 3x Long Silver ETN Linked to the S&P GSCI Silver Index ER (NasdaqGM: USLV) and the ProShares Ultra Silver (NYSEArca: AGQ) are something to consider.
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