“When it comes to assessing political matters (especially global geopolitics like the North Korea matter), we are very humble. We know that we don’t have a unique insight that we’d choose to bet on …,” said Bridgewater in a note posted by Business Insider. “We can also say that if the above things go badly, it would seem that gold (more than other safe haven assets like the dollar, yen, and treasuries) would benefit, so if you don’t have 5-10% of your assets in gold as a hedge, we’d suggest you relook at this. Don’t let traditional biases, rather than an excellent analysis, stand in the way of you doing this (and if you do have an excellent analysis of why you shouldn’t have such an allocation to gold, we’d appreciate you sharing it with us.).”
Related: 17 ETFs to Satisfy Your Gold Fever
The good news for gold ETFs is that inflation could serve as a catalyst for the yellow metal. Rising inflation could also prove to be a catalyst for gold ETFs. By some metrics, the Fed has under-estimated U.S. inflation, which could prove beneficial to gold because the yellow metal is historically a popular inflation fighter.
Flows data suggest investors need some convincing to consider gold ETFs. GLD has bled nearly $2.6 billion in assets since the start of the third quarter, a figure hardly offset by the $45.7 million that has flowed into the rival IAU.
For more information on the gold market, visit our gold category.
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of GLD.