1) Record Number of Fund Managers Think Gold is Overvalued
The Bank of America Fund Manager Survey shows the highest amount of fund managers in 18 years think Gold is overvalued.
Keep two things in mind here.
First, the survey dates back to 2008.
So, 2008-2011 and 2024-2025 are the only points during which Gold was in a secular bull market. And those are the points that need to be compared to today.
So there is not enough data for a proper comparison.
Second, in a secular bull, sentiment data like this will run hot.
October/November 2024 had one of the highest readings ever. Gold corrected less than 10%, then exploded higher in early 2025.
2) Gold Managed Money Positioning is down.
Credit: @InProved_Metals
Yesterday I noted the net speculative position in Gold has decreased from 340K contracts down to 191K contracts.
The Managed Money category is essentially Hedge Funds.
@InProved_Metals notes that Managed Money net long bets are down 43% YTD and at a 15-month low.
A healthy amount of speculation has been removed from the market.
It has been a heck of a last year for precious metals. A year ago, Gold broke out from its 13-year cup and handle pattern, and days ago, it reached its measured upside target of $3,000/oz.
Quality miners and quality junior mining companies have surged higher.
Silver has moved higher alongside Gold but has not outperformed Gold yet. It has gained roughly the same amount as Gold in the past 13 months.
However, since the May 2024 peak, Silver is up only 4% while Gold is up nearly 25%.
Part of the issue is that Gold, after clearing $2100/oz, has been able to enjoy blue sky territory (no overhead resistance) while Silver has had to chew through multiple resistance levels between $26 and $35/oz.
2) A review of history shows it is too soon to expect Silver to outperform Gold
We plot Silver, Gold, and Silver/Gold in the chart below.
Silver is a leveraged bet on Gold, so we focus on Gold's price action.
The vertical lines mark the start of strong legs higher in Silver/Gold and Silver.
The blue arrows mark points at which Gold tested its 200-day moving average after a breakout.
There are six notable periods of Silver outperformance.
Five of the six periods of outperformance began after a breakout in Gold was followed by a correction to its 200-day moving average.
In 1978 and 2003, Silver's outperformance began immediately after Gold's retest of the 200-day moving average.
In the other three cases (1973, 2010, and 2020), Silver's outperformance began four months, two months, and two months after the first test of the 200-day moving average.