Why This Trader Would Stay Long Gold; Comments on Billionaire Paulson’s Gold Sales
KITCO NEWS — Gold steadied Wednesday following its rally to a 12-month high last week and Kitco’s trading director Peter Hug said he remains optimistic about the precious metal moving higher. 'Overall, I think the fundamentals still remain for the market to move higher in the short term,’ he told Kitco News. However, it might be an uphill battle for gold traders. ‘This is not going to be a linear move...it’s going to be a choppy transition,’ he says, adding that the metal has seen its floor. 'As a trader, you’re going to be whipsawed so you need to trade technical levels.’ April Comex gold futures settled relatively unchanged at $1,211.40 an ounce Wednesday as oil prices and equity markets stabilized. Hug also commented on the latest regulatory fillings of billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, which showed that he liquidated a 37% stake in the world’s biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund — SPDR GLD — last quarter. Does this mean the gold bull has turned bearish? Hug says this isn’t the case. 'My guess is that a lot of investors in his funds threw in the towel and liquidated [gold positions], and he had cash calls,’ he says. ‘I highly doubt he’s turned bearish. I think it was just a set of circumstances.’
