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The World Gold Council puts gold's position in the global financial system into perspective among all financial assets

Personal Finance
The World Gold Council puts gold's position in the global financial system into perspective among all financial assets

Content sourced from the World Gold Council


Gold returns are competitive compared to major financial assets

Performance metrics for major global financial assets in US$*

* 1-year and 10-year returns based on data ending 28 September 2018.

**BarCap US Credit includes both government and high grade corporate bonds.

Source: Bloomberg; World Gold Council

Gold has been correlated to stocks and high-quality bond performance so far this year

Weekly return correlation on key assets and gold in US$*

* Year-to-date (YTD) and 10-year correlations based on weekly returns ending 28 September 2018.

** BarCap US Credit includes both sovereign and corporate bonds.

Source: Bloomberg; World Gold Council

Gold performance should be measured in more than one currency

Annual gold returns in various currencies*

* Based on the LBMA Gold Price PM except for the Long USD Gold Index that is based on the Solactive GLD® Long US$ Gold Index. The Index combines a long position in physical gold with a long position in a basket of currencies that include EUR (57.6%), JPY (13.6%) GBP (11.9%), CAD (9.1%), SEK (4.2%) and CHF (3.6%). For more details see: https://www.solactive.com/complex-indexing/?index=DE000SLA2K90.

** Year-to-date as of 28 September 2018.

Source: Bloomberg; ICE Benchmark Administration; Solactive AG; World Gold Council

Gold trades more than many other major financial asset

Average daily trading volumes in US$*

Based on estimated 1-year average trading volumes as of 28 September 2018, except for currencies that correspond to 2016 volumes due to data availability.

** Gold liquidity includes estimates on over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, and published statistics on futures exchanges, and gold-backed exchange-traded products.

Source: BIS; Bloomberg; German Finance Agency; Japan Securities DealersAssociation; LBMA; UK Debt Management Office (DMO); World Gold Council

Financial gold accounts for more than a third of above- ground gold stocks

Market size (in tonnes and US$ value) for various gold sectors*

* Estimated tonnage as 31 December 2017. US-dollar values calculated using YTD 2017 average LBMA Gold price of US$1,287/oz. Financial gold is defined as the sum of official sector holdings, bars and coins, and ETPs** (73,371 tonnes, US$3tn, 38%).

**ETPs include gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs) and similar products.

Source: Bloomberg; GFMS, Thomson Reuters; ICE Benchmark Administration; Respective ETP Providers; World Gold Council

The size of financial physical gold is larger than many stock and bond markets

Market size of major global financial assets in US$*

* As of 28 September 2018 where available, otherwise most recent data published.

** Includes bars, coins, gold-backed exchange-traded products and official sector holdings.

Source: BIS; Bloomberg; GFMS, Thomson Reuters; ICE Benchmark Administration; World Gold Council


This article is a re-post from here. The original article also has detailed Notes and Sources.


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