Poll: What Is the Primary Factor Bringing Down the Price of Gold ?

In a poll conducted earlier this week in the CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief, readers were asked, what was the primary factor in the recent decline in gold prices.

What is the primary factor bringing the price of gold to its recent sell-off level of $1,400?




In this week’s poll, 30% of the 1,211 respondents chose the response “many large holders have announced their intent to sell,” in line with what was reported about the Central Bank of Cyprus, George Soros, and others, whereas nearly the same proportion believe that the list of factors in the poll does not include what they consider the primary factor for the sell-off.

Indeed, the cause of this sell-off, the largest in 30 years, appears to be quite complex, with most of the sell action in the COMEX, where 400 metric tons ($20 billion) were sold within a matter of hours, while reported physical gold demand remained robust, especially in Asia. Some linked to gold price crash to the sell-off in the Japanese bond market, while others attributed the drop to an orchestrated bear raid.