Most of the readers here are likely familiar with Joe Weisenthal, the Deputy Editor for Business Insider. I discovered BI during the financial meltdown and it showed promise, sadly, it has since devolved into hysterical punditry and sensationalism, often schizophrenically hyping mutually exclusive narratives.
One constant throughout it all, has been Weisenthal’s remarkably horrible calls on gold every step of the way. Frustrated goldbugs who read BI consider Joe some kind of “gold bashing shill”, however if one reads his bio you’ll find that he lists gold among his investments. No I don’t think Joe is a gold basher, and I don’t even think he’s as mind-numbingly dumb as people accuse him of being. But if there’s one thing you can count on from Joe, it’s to be dead wrong on the overall direction of gold on a near-perfect basis.
For awhile I tried in vain to engage Joe in a debate or even a bet in the comments of BI. For example, when Joe posted the “Gold cannot break through 1000/oz” article I marked in the handy reference chart above, I offered to wager $1000 that in one year gold would outperform the S&P500 in USD terms. A year later gold was surging past $1200/oz (prompting calls of a “gold top” from Joe), while the S&P500 was testing support around 1060 or so.
A little less than a month after that, Joe took the opportunity to demonstrate his charting abilities to declare that gold was “looking pretty” sick, while I was posting on my own blog that despite a sharp gold sell-off I believed the bull market to be quite intact.
Today Joe has come out with his “Sign of a Gold Bubble Top” that mining company Ashanti has closed out its hedge book, and while I was typing this he posted a new article “What is that hissing sound?” – Gold Just got Whacked in response to an intraday selloff moments ago.
I am not a professional trader, nor do I play on on TV. But I have been investing in gold and silver since around 1999, and make no mistake, I’ve done very well with it.
So I get asked a lot whether I think gold is “in a bubble” or near a top. I’ve been telling people the same thing for years and that is to basically watch the mainstream media:
When new highs are declared to be bubble blow-offs and tops, it means the bull trend is still in effect.
When corrections become heralded as the end of the gold bull, the bull trend is still in effect.
Watch very carefully for the day when:
When corrections are greeted as buying opportunities (within the mainstream media), then it’s over.
And finally,
Joe Weisenthal is more interested in driving pageviews and clicks to BI than accurately assessing gold, so view everything he says on the subject through that lense. That, and he’s usually wrong.
Joe Weisenthal is more interested in driving pageviews and clicks..
says it all…