The price of gold has recently been in free-fall plummeting to a five year low (see chart below of performance for the year to date). Those trying to rationalise the rout are citing a rising dollar (gold is denominated in dollars so a strong dollar makes it expensive to buy), lower demand from China and improving investment market confidence. Yet gold's price has been falling since late 2011 so it's nothing new. Is the old investment adage of always holding a certain amount of gold as an insurance against market volatility even true. Should you ever invest in gold?
Gold has held humans entranced for centuries. Part comes from its beauty and much from it's relative scarcity and the fact that it is chemically uninteresting. By the latter I mean that it doesn't react with anything which is always a good thing if you want to make coins and jewellery out of an element.
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