Face up to the risks before you invest in gold shares
‘Over the past decade, the gold sector of the JSE Securities Exchange beat the rest of the market in only three of those years (measured over the calendar year). In 2001 and 2002, gold shares staged dramatic moves, with counters such as Gold Fields gaining over 300 percent.
However, in two years during the past decade the gold sector under-performed the market by more than 50 percent a year. Investors in Gold Fields, for example, saw their shares drop by 70 percent in three years in the late nineties.
Gold is not a sector for the faint-hearted and is most definitely not for the emotional investor. Yet there is a subset of investors who get a glazed look in their eyes when you mention gold shares. I am never sure if that glazed look is caused by their eyes misting over as they mourn past losses, or nostalgia at past successes, or wistfulness over lost opportunities in the gold sector.
Perennial gold bulls also tend to have interesting conspiracy theories, but let’s not gild all gold investors with the same brush.’
Read more at Face up to the risks before you invest in gold shares
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