Fat Prophets have been gold bulls for a long time and I give them kudos for that. However, in a recent article
The Silent Gold Rush Is On they make the following faulty analysis:
The Australian newspaper reported over the weekend that the Perth Mint is not taking any more orders for gold until January. Our guess is that the Mint does not want to expose itself to higher future prices given that it does not have the inventory to meet the demand for bullion.I sent the response below to them a couple of weeks ago, no response as yet:
Your guess that we do not want to be exposed to higher future prices is incorrect and is based on a misunderstanding of how the gold markets work. If we take an order and fix a metal price (it is also possible to take an order and agree to fix a price at the time the bullion is ready for delivery) then we immediately buy the raw gold that will be used to make the bars/coins for the client. There is therefore never any exposure the future prices. I discuss this is more detail in my blog on the
value chain.
I really wish commentators would just call us up and ask us questions, rather than just guessing or making stuff up.