From Bloomberg:
I always know when the price of gold is doing well. It's not because I monitor the price all that closely, but rather it's because the gold-bug trolls start showing up on Twitter. So yes, as it turns out, the yellow metal is on a run again, as investors pile into the GLD ETF at the fastest pace in nearly three years. That said, the actual rally is impressively mediocre. The price of an ounce of gold is only up 3.5% so far this year. Not only that, it was higher mid February. Not only that, gold has been getting trounced by U.S. Treasuries. The Bloomberg Barclays US Treasury Total Return Unhedged index is up 4.6% so far in 2019. Over the last year, gold is up by less than 3%, while Treasuries have returned over 7%. It's honestly astonishing that such a boring, slow-moving commodity can inspire such passion.
The grain market is far more interesting. Now it's probably true that in the event of some kind of hyperinflationary financial Armageddon, gold might do better than some notes from the U.S. government (maybe). But in the normal course of market events, it's pretty astonishing how excited people get over such mild moves, especially given more exciting instruments, like U.S. Treasuries, that are available for you to bet on if you think things are going south.
I always know when the price of gold is doing well. It's not because I monitor the price all that closely, but rather it's because the gold-bug trolls start showing up on Twitter. So yes, as it turns out, the yellow metal is on a run again, as investors pile into the GLD ETF at the fastest pace in nearly three years. That said, the actual rally is impressively mediocre. The price of an ounce of gold is only up 3.5% so far this year. Not only that, it was higher mid February. Not only that, gold has been getting trounced by U.S. Treasuries. The Bloomberg Barclays US Treasury Total Return Unhedged index is up 4.6% so far in 2019. Over the last year, gold is up by less than 3%, while Treasuries have returned over 7%. It's honestly astonishing that such a boring, slow-moving commodity can inspire such passion.
The grain market is far more interesting. Now it's probably true that in the event of some kind of hyperinflationary financial Armageddon, gold might do better than some notes from the U.S. government (maybe). But in the normal course of market events, it's pretty astonishing how excited people get over such mild moves, especially given more exciting instruments, like U.S. Treasuries, that are available for you to bet on if you think things are going south. 
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