Explanations of "Gold" investment-related terms A to Z

Backwardation is a phenomenon seen in the futures market, which futures traders need to monitor. A forward curve is said to be in backwardation when futures are traded at a discount in comparison with spot. Gold backwardation means that traders could potentially gain capital (versus simply buying gold right away) when holding gold futures until the contract expires.

We bet that you have heard about bailout (if not, you are welcome to read our take on bailout here). But bailouts are so yesterday - do you know what a bail-in is?

What is the connection between removing water from a sinking vessel using a bucket, paying for someone’s release from jail, and jumping from an airplane with a parachute? Yes, all these activities are referred to by the verb “to bail out”.

The Balance Of Payments is a government produced financial measure relating to a period of time which accounts in financial terms for the difference between the value of all the country’s imports and its exports. It is an important measure of a country’s relative performance in the global economy.

The Bank of Japan, based in Tokyo, is the central bank of Japan. It ensures the smooth settlement of funds among banks and other financial institutions and issues banknotes. The BOJ also carries out currency and monetary control, which is aimed at achieving price stability (understood as a 2 percent year-on-year rate of change of the consumer price index), thereby contributing to the sound development of the national economy. The BOJ's highest decision-making body is the Policy Board.

The coronavirus crisis has led to the toilet paper run. The fear of being trapped under quarantine for a long time caused panic buying of the toilet paper. Although called by many observers irrational, the frantic purchases were totally rational, given the actions of other people. After all, if others run to the store, the optimal strategy for you is to do the same, otherwise you will be left without toilet paper. And it would be a shitty result, wouldn’t it?

It turns out that toilet paper run is similar to the bank run. What is it? The bank run occurs when a large number of clients withdraw their deposits from a bank at the same time, because they fear the institutions will run out of money.
Some economists say that a bank run is the result of panic rather than true insolvency, but this is not true. The hard truth is that commercial banks which operate under the fractional-reserve banking system, are generally bankrupt. This is because they keep only a fraction of their clients’ money at bank (this is the difference from the toilet paper run – stores do not promise to keep toilet paper ready on the shelf for you). So, in case of bank runs, banks have to fail. It is like poker, you can have poor cards but still be in game – until somebody says “check”.

A bearish divergence between the price and a technical indicator is a moderately useful tool for detecting a coming reversal in the bullish trend. Bearish divergence in gold is therefore a moderately bearish signal for the gold market.

A bear market refers to a decline in prices, usually for an extended period, in a single security or asset, group of securities or the securities market as a whole. Its opposite is a bull market where prices are rising. In case of precious metals, the great gold bear market started in 1980 after the major, long-term top.

Have you seen the Green Book? It’s a bit naïve, but generally great and funny movie. The film was named after The Negro Motorist Green Book, a mid-20th century guidebook for African-American travelers, which had green cover and was written by Victor Hugo Green.

Ben Bernanke was born on December the 13th, 1953 in Augusta, Georgia. He received his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1979. He worked in academia for many years, but later started his public service. In 2002-2005, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Fed. In 2005-2006, he was a chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. In February 2006, he became the Fed Chair, after being nominated by President Bush. During his tenure, Bernanke was responsible for the Fed’s response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession. He was later nominated by President Obama for a second term from 2010 to 2014 when Janet Yellen succeeded him as the Fed Chair.

The bid-ask spread is the difference between the price quoted by investors who want to sell a certain stock or asset (ask price) and those who wish to buy it (bid price). The higher the spread the less liquidity in the market for the asset.

The currency of the future. The biggest scam in history. The digital gold. The worthless bits of computer data. The great invention and investment. The tool for speculators and criminals. There are as many opinions about Bitcoin and its future as there are people. This explains divergent price expectations and substantial volatility. But what is really Bitcoin and what are its links to gold?