Contrarian Investor: Whatever happened to gold?

CONTRARIAN

This time last year the shiny precious metal was touching $1,900 an ounce and everyone, including my great aunt, could be found looting their jewellery stashes for anything glittering that could be turned into hard cash.

Flash forward a year and gold prices appear, on initial inspections at least, to be becalmed in a trading range between $1,550 and $1,650, with a lower support at around $1,500 and a target barrier at between $1,750 and $1,800.  Gold bugs continue to warn of dark days ahead, but gold prices do not seem to be responding. Out on the wackier internet bulletin boards, the conspiracy theorists are pointing their crooked fingers at dark forces ‘deliberately’ pushing the price down to maintain a semblance of social order. But you do not have to be the financial equivalent of a conspiracy wac...