Rumours of the demise of gold have been exaggerated so often in recent years that seizing on its recent slump smacks of recklessness. Taken at face value, its price drop is hardly catastrophic. Gold is down a little more than 16 per cent from the all-time nominal high it reached in September; it remains up nearly 12 per cent year-to-date. That may be less than it delivered in 2008 and 2009, when it rose 25 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively. But it beats nearly any broad equity or fixed income index over one or three years, with the notable exception of US Treasuries.
近年有關黃金失寵的傳言往往被證明言過其實，以至于抓住近期金價下跌大做文章有魯莽之嫌。從表面上看，金價跌幅并不是災難性的。相比9月份達到的名義金價最高點，跌幅僅略高于16%，而今年以來金價漲幅仍有近12%。這比起2008年和2009年的漲幅也許小了一些（那兩年金價分別上漲25%和29%），但從1年或3年期表現看，黃金優于幾乎所有股指或固定收益指數，只有美國國債除外（這點值得注意）。