by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money
The gold price rose strongly on Monday and Tuesday, before drifting lower on Wednesday and Thursday.
In early European trading this morning, gold opened slightly stronger at $1230, up $2. Silver was the star performer this week, rising strongly to correct this year’s underperformance, as shown in our headline chart, and it broadly held its ground while gold lost about $30 from this week’s highs.
Silver’s strength in recent days is an illustration of how the mixture of regulated futures, forwards, and over-the-counter instruments creates analytical difficulties. The only reliable trading figures we have are from the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders Reports, issued after a delay of three days. Those indicate silver is very overbought, with hedge funds holding near-record net longs.