Gold’s first monthly price drop since June saw Western investors buy more gold than they sold in November, snapping 14 months of net profit-taking on BullionVault.
The world’s leading precious metals marketplace for private investors, BullionVault now cares for $5.0 billion of gold, silver, platinum and palladium (£3.9bn, €4.7bn), all securely custodied, insured and audited for more than 110,000 users from 175 countries. Nine-in-10 of them live in North America or Western Europe.
First-time investing held strong in November as gold edged back from this autumn’s fresh all-time highs, with the number of new users running 59.5% above the 12-month average.
In total, more people bought gold using BullionVault than any time in almost 2.5 years. That helped push up the Gold Investor Index – a unique measure of ‘revealed preference’ in private-investor gold demand – to its highest since June 2023.
“Now that the US election is decided, the investment risks for 2025 are becoming clearer, starting with currency-market volatility. Gold’s retreat from its latest all-time highs is giving would-be buyers the chance to start building a position. That’s offsetting continued profit-taking by longer-term holders.”
November saw more people choose to buy gold across the month than any time since July 2022, back when gold cost almost $900 less than today’s $2640 per Troy ounce (£640 from today’s £2090, €820 from €2525). Rising 8.2% from October’s figure, that contrasted with the number of sellers falling 14.8% to the fewest in 3 months.
Together, that drove up the Gold Investor Index – now tracking the balance of buyers over sellers on BullionVault every month since October 2009 – to a 17-month high of 55.1, rising by 1.5 points.
Any reading above 50.0 signals more buyers than sellers. The Gold Investor Index hit a decade peak of 65.9 as the Covid Crisis struck in March 2020, and it set a series low of 47.5 on record-heavy profit taking this March.
November’s post-election surge in the Dollar on the currency market helped knocked gold 3.0% lower from October’s fresh record finish, which had marked the 4th new month-end high in a row. But gold priced in Euros edged only 0.2% lower as the price in UK Pounds dropped 1.6%.
The number of first-time users of BullionVault slipped by 13.5% worldwide from October’s 55-month high, but it ran 59.5% ahead of the 12-month average, led by continued strength in the UK, France and the Netherlands.
New US investors remained low in comparison, falling 20.0% from October’s count and running just 18.2% above the 12-month average.
By weight, BullionVault users as a group were net buyers of gold for the first time in 15 months, albeit of only 17.5 kilograms. That took client holdings – all securely custodied, insured and audited in each user’s choice of London, New York, Singapore, Toronto or most popular Zurich – up towards 44.2 tonnes worth $3.7 billion (£2.9bn, €3.5bn).
While that means customer gold holdings have shrunk 5.9% by weight so far this year, they have risen 21.0% in Dollar terms (21.2% in GBP, 26.7% in EUR).
The Silver Investor Index also jumped as the price of bullion retreated in November, with the number of buyers rising 3.3% to the most since July 2022 (when silver traded at $19.08) while the number of sellers sank by 36.8% to a 3-month low with its steepest drop since June.
That put the index at a 21-month high of 54.0, exactly 3.0 points higher from October, as the silver price dropped 8.6% in Dollar terms (-6.6% in GBP, -5.9% in EUR), its steepest fall since February last year.
By weight, BullionVault users added almost 8.0 tonnes of silver, the single heaviest 1-month inflow since January. That reversed 28.0% of the prior 2 months’ liquidation and took client holdings to just above 1,154 tonnes worth $1.1bn (£897m, €1.0bn).
