Investors Are Shifting Back Into Gold. It Looks Like a Smart Move.

BARRONS- "There has been a stealth move to gold in the past year, both by investors buying exchange-traded funds that hold the metal and central banks, which have been shifting a portion of their reserves from traditional paper currencies, notably the U.S. dollar, to the monetary metal, according to J.P. Morgan's global markets strategy team led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou. Despite the U.S. stock market's ascent to records, mutual fund investors have been surprisingly cautious...They have also poured money into gold ETFs, boosting the ETFs' assets back to their highs of 2012, shortly after bullion peaked near $1,900 an ounce. Since late 2018, when Barron's published a bullish cover story on gold investing, the metal is up more than 30%...settling Tuesday at $1,569.20. Panigirtzoglou's team sees gold as an underowned asset, both by individual as well as institutional investors, despite the inflows into the metal in the past year or so. They see further scope for increased allocation to gold in their asset mixes....Gold retains its intrinsic value, something no paper currency has managed to do over history. Gold is insurance. Insurance isn't supposed to make you rich; it's supposed to keep you from being poor. The best thing to happen is your insurance never pays off because nothing bad happens. Hope for the best, but better to prepare for the worst."