The price action on gold has been hot lately.  Gold closed at an all-time high on December 2^nd of $1,212.50 per ounce.  The price action prior to that was climbing almost daily from the $1,050 mark.  After it reached the high of $1,212.50 it slowly made its way down to test the $1,050 support level.  It came close to this support level but never broke it.  It closed at around $1,058 on February 5^th and since then has steadily climbed to where it sits today of $1,112.

The up and down market action can be scary for your average investor.  This is why I always say, if you are not a day trader then you do not need to pay attention to the daily market action.  What you are looking for are trends in the market.  Trends are what tell you what to do in the long-term.  Trends should guide your strategy.  If you look at a chart of gold from 2000 to present you can see a long-term positive trend.  It started at $252 per ounce and has been climbing ever since.  Sure there have been some big corrections along the way, buy that is what you want.  Ups and downs are a sign of a healthy market.  If you were watching the daily market action you might have sold out too early.  This is why trends are so important.

Take March of 2008 to November of 2008 for example.  Gold rose to an all-time high of over $1,000 per ounce and steadily fell to $709 per ounce.  Had you have sold out because of the downward slide, you would have missed out on the following upswing.  As for the current trend, everything is pointing towards a continuation of the upward trend.  Two of the biggest factors playing into the future of the gold market are the U.S. Dollar and normal bull market cycles.

The dollar has been in a steady demise for a few years now, and with all of the money printing going on with the U.S. government I don’t think it will be going strong anytime soon.  I have written many times in this blog about the three phases of a bull market which I think is also a big factor contributing to the positive trend in gold.  Many experts are calling for gold to hit $2,000 per ounce this year and $4,000 to $5,000 per ounce before the trend is over.