What signal? From senior investors to ordinary investors, everyone is "hoarding gold like crazy"

For decades, Marc Faber, a seasoned investor who calls himself "Dr. Doom," has been buying gold and advising others to hoard it as well.

Faber can be described as a "gold enthusiast" who often sounds the alarm about economic collapse. Recently, he has been focusing on a series of looming crises: debt crises, plunging asset prices, and soaring inflation.

"My feeling is that a debt crisis is inevitable," he said.

Ordinary investors are also going "crazy."

Meanwhile, he himself has been regularly purchasing gold, which, according to him, accounts for 25% of his total investment portfolio. Moreover, a significant portion of Faber's clients' wealth is also held in gold. However, the latest signs indicate that the gold-buying frenzy that has driven up gold prices this year is spreading to more ordinary investors.

Faber pointed out that this can be attributed to the negative sentiment in the economy in 2025. Despite the economy's continued stabilization, "soft data" such as consumer confidence and inflation expectations are still deteriorating. Although some of the "worst-case scenarios" may not materialize, the expected surge in demand from "nervous buyers" is not expected to end soon.

Currently, gold investors are emerging in the US and overseas. Data from the World Gold Council shows that in Q1 2025, global gold bar demand climbed to 257 mt, a 13% increase from the same period last year.

Joe Cavatoni, a market strategist at the World Gold Council, said he believes concerns about the US dollar, the weakness of the US economy, government debt, and deficits are among the reasons for the rise in gold demand. Meanwhile, events such as Trump's indiscriminate use of "tariff sticks" and Moody's downgrade of the US debt rating have also led to a significant increase in investment interest in gold bars.

Genesis Gold Group is a gold dealer. The company said that in the past few quarters, there has been a surge of interest in gold. The demand for gold has been so robust that the company has introduced a type of gold bar designed for crisis situations, which can be broken into smaller pieces for easy trading during crises.

Jonathan Rose, the company's CEO, said that after the presidential election, demand for such gold bars surged briefly, and then spiked by 20% in Q1 2025, around the time when President Donald Trump began formulating tariff policies.

Rose said, "An increasing number of clients investing in gold are requesting physical gold to be delivered to them." He estimated that the proportion of clients insisting on holding physical gold has surged from 20% in past years to 70%.

Gold Price Rally Not Over Yet

In summary, gold's performance this year has been evident to all. Gold prices have risen by 25% in 2025, easily outperforming the S&P 500, which has fallen by approximately 1% year-to-date.

Michael Boutros, Senior Technical Strategist at financial services firm StoneX, said that although there may be a slight sense of "overcrowding,"gold demand will remain strong as long as there is economic uncertainty.

He believes that even if trade agreements are finalised, investors will still be nervous as they await the economic impact of tariffs.

"The more volatile the situation, the easier it is for gold prices to hold their ground,"he said, referring to the gold price trend.

Cavatoni from the World Gold Council added, "We believe that the support levels and upward trajectory for gold prices in 2025 are in a very favourable position."