Buying gold today comparable to buying stocks in April 2009?

Source: U.S. Global Investors. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Trading with shouting distance of $1,250 an ounce, the gold price has leapt 17% so far this year.

Commodities investment guru Frank Holmes of US Global Investors in his latest missive points out just how good 2016 has been for gold.

Not only is gold the best performing asset class beating out oil, emerging markets, the S&P 500, the US dollar and the bond market, but February’s performance for the metal has been the best ever.

“Buying gold today may be comparable to buying stocks in April 2009”

As the graph shows gold’s double digit gains during February was the best since futures trading began in 1975, not long after the US left the gold standard. February was also the biggest monthly jump in the gold price since January 2012.

Holmes also appears ready to call the end of gold’s bear market since touching a record high in nominal terms above $1,900 an ounce in September 2011 quoting an analyst as saying “buying gold today may be comparable to buying stocks in April 2009.”

Between then and November 2015, the S&P 500 Index rose 145% Holmes notes.