Hedge funds’ bullish bets on gold jump to four-year high
Hedge funds and other large speculators boosted their net-long position in gold.
The gold price plunged by as much as $145 in morning trade on Monday, the worst trading day in history.
The gold price dropped to $1,355 in mid-morning – down $145 from the Friday close of $1,501 in New York – to a level last seen in January 2011.
June gold tried to regain some of its footing through the day, but during mid-afternoon trade was changing hands near the day’s low at $1,364 an ounce, down just over 9%.
The two day decline – gold ended Friday $88 down – is the worst during gold’s 12-year bull run, but in February 1983, the yellow metal fell from $475 to $408.50 over two days, a 14% decline. That is still in percentage terms the biggest one day drop for the metal.
The gold price is down more than 17% this year and Friday’s sharp decline dragged the metal it into official bear territory, defined as a 20% decline from a high.
Gold hit a record $1,909 an ounce intra-day on 23 August 2011, but a the next day suffered one of its few triple digit one-day losses when it plummeted $105, ending the week down more than 10% from the all-time high.
Adjusting for inflation, gold’s highest price point ever was on January 21, 1980 when the precious metal hit $850 only to plunge the very next day to $737.50, a 13% fall.
READ: Now it’s definitely here: the BEAR market in gold
