The rush for gold ETFs

YOU can learn a lot about an investor from whether they invest in gold, and how they do it.

As people pile into gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at the fastest rate in more than a year, it's clear that the precious metal's appeal as the ultimate safe haven now extends well beyond the universe of dollar-doubters and doomsayers otherwise known as "gold bugs".

Gold is up almost 6 per cent this year, compared with a 6 per cent loss for the S&P 500-stock index. This is a major turnaround from the past two years, when gold ETFs were down 34 per cent, and US$33 billion flowed out of those funds.

Given gold's performance, it's not a hu…