The mystery of gold prices
A fear-and-inflation hedge has failed to hedge against fear or inflation
Traders have an expression to describe how unpredictable financial markets can be: “better off dumb”. Stocks or other financial markets can sometimes behave in unforeseeable ways. Analysts predicted that American share prices would collapse if Donald Trump won the election in 2016—they soared. Companies that post better-than-expected earnings sometimes see their share prices decline. Glimpsing the future should give a trader an edge, and most of the time it would. But not always.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Fool’s gold”
From the July 15th 2023 edition
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