Exchange-traded funds backed by precious metals saw record inflows at the beginning of 2009 — almost 15 million ounces or some 450 tonnes flowed in during the first three months of the year. Then, Reuters tells us that the flow of gold-buying by the gold-backed ETFs dwindled in the second quarter to less than a million ounces. Their holdings actually slipped by 4 percent in July.
That was then. How about now? A chart from www.sharelynx.com shows us that gold buying by the ETFs is clearly picking up again …
Sharelynx.com — a great source of information, by the way — tracks all the gold ETFs in the world. You can see, on the far right of the chart, that the combined gold holdings of ETFs is picking up again.
That means the gains we saw in gold in July came when gold ETFs were selling. I wonder what gold prices will do when gold ETFs are BUYING?
Meanwhile, a Swiss gold ETF is now listed in the U.S., giving us three in all. The new one is the ETFS Physical Swiss Shares (SGOL: 107.05 +0.94 +0.89%), also known as the ETFs Gold Trust. This fund is backed by physical gold bullion held in vaults in Zurich, Switzerland. SGOL joins the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD: 104.99 +0.95 +0.91%) and iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU: 105.11 +1.01 +0.97%) as ETFs that position themselves as ways U.S. investors can buy gold through an exchange-traded fund.
According to Reuters, the company said in a statement the product was in response to investor interest for a ETF backed by gold bullion stored in Switzerland.
Premium-service subscribers and buyers of my “Gold Fever” gold report know my preferred ways to buy gold. I would only use the GLD for a short-term trade.
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