Sunshine Profits

The Hindu festival of Akshaya Tritivai is coming up this month and this is of interest for gold investors. The holiday, which falls on April 24th, is a day when Indians go on a major gold buying binge.

Tuesday marked the worst day of the year for U.S. markets. Stocks fell amid anxiety ahead of earnings season and rising bond yields for Spain and Italy, along with sharp losses for those markets.

We often get fearful queries from short-term traders who are concerned about short-term movements in the precious metals market.

Yellow and silver are our favorite colors, but red is what we are seeing on the boards this week after the U.S. central bank dashed hopes for more monetary stimulus and a weakened euro weighed on sentiment.

Gold seems mercurial lately sliding up and down causing some gold investors to grey prematurely.

This Wednesday Goldman Sachs reiterated its position that investors should buy gold.

Last week, we devoted the beginning of our essay on the possible move up in gold to reassure our bullish outlook on precious metals despite the fact that prices were falling then.

It’s tough being a lone voice saying that gold prices will go up when they have tumbled and the financial press is writing obituaries for the gold bull market

According to a Bloomberg survey at a precious metals conference this week, gold is poised for a 21 percent gain in 2012, extending its bull market to 12 consecutive years. Bullion may rise to $1,897 an ounce in New York by Dec. 31 from $1,566.80 at the end of 2011.

The roller coaster metaphor we used two weeks ago after the $90 flash crash in the price of gold seems appropriate this week as well. It must be tough out there for precious metals investors. Wednesday gold futures tumbled again.

The recent precipitous plunge in precious metals was one of the biggest sell-offs in recent memory. The gold “Flash Crash” even prompted a serious newspaper such as the Financial Times to run a headline stating “Flash Crash Rouses Suspicions of Witchcraft.”

On Tuesday gold prices continued to break down, falling for a fifth consecutive day breaking below the 200-day moving average.