Gold: 40 years of turmoil

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/commodities/8432970/Gold-40-years-of-turmoil.html

This is a good summary of the history of gold in the last 40 years--ever since President Nixon took us off the gold standard.  However, a big omission in this timeline is the huge 30% correction in gold that occurred in the aftermath of the financial meltdown in September 2008.  Gold prices plummeted to $675/oz. (silver dropped in tandem to $9/oz.) at the COMEX in paper trading--even while demand for physical bullion was soaring.  Of course, this presented a great entry point as that demand eventually drove both gold and silver to quickly rebound with intensity.

In a liquidity crunch, all asset sectors sold off after Lehman Brothers collapsed, but the markets quickly regained their sanity and bid up the price of gold and silver as safe haven assets.  In the next market sell off, I expect the precious metals sector to temporarily sell off again, and I again expect it to be a great buying opportunity.  Of course, I could be wrong, and the markets could have "learned" from the last sell off, and immediately rush toward gold and silver, whereby the temporary correction will never unfold, causing their prices to immediately shoot up.  As a trader, it presents a dilemma.  As a long-term holder of tangible assets, it will be prudent to watch from the sidelines or even add to one's positions.

See disclaimer in the side bar.

Disclosure:  long precious metals mining shares, Ag, and Au.