“What is the price of gold?”
At the time of writing the price of gold, called the gold spot, is $1075 per troy ounce. Gold is always measured in troy ounces. A troy ounce is 31.1g which is, rather confusingly, more than a normal ounce. The price of gold of course fluctuates daily, and it is almost impossible to predict accurately what the price of gold will be at any time. Over the last two years the price of gold has risen sharply, perhaps reflecting a movement towards holding gold as an investment as people have been scared to keep their assets in cash, or in stocks and shares, following the financial turmoil of 2007, 2008 and 2009. Obviously the more people there are who want to buy gold, the higher the price will go. This is because gold is a finite resource, meaning there is only a limited amount of gold available in the world, and so when the demand for gold goes up, so does the price.
Gold has been a big investment tool, used by institutional investors, sovereign funds, and individuals throughout the world. Since 1970 the price of gold has risen from $37 an ounce to today’s dizzy heights, although it has not always been an uphill climb, for example in 1980 gold hit a record high of $850 before falling right back down to between $300 and £500 an ounce for more than a decade. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned for current gold investors, although it is worth noting that the spike in the price of gold in 1980 was more sudden than the recent surge in the price of gold, the drop-off just as sudden. The recent increase in gold price has not followed such a sharp spike.
There are an enormous number of factors which affect the price of gold, but most of them boil down to basic supply and demand. For example the role played by the International Monetary Fund. There are lots of ways to keep up-to-date with the price fluctuations of gold, and of other precious metals, I normally use a website like Kitco or something similar.