Time for a little fun with gold.
As a child of the 1980s, I took particular interest in a fun October 13, 2010, Bloomberg interview with A-Team star Mr. T., the celebrity pitchman for Gold Promise. Gold Promise is a service run by Cash America International, Inc. (CSH) that allows people to sell their gold jewelry through the mail. Some people have pointed to gold vending machines as a contrarian signal that the fever to buy gold has reached bubble-level proportions without noting the proliferation of services like Gold Promise that are eager to relieve retail customers of their gold. (Tim Iacono provides a nice chart showing how today’s gold run is but a blip compared to the 1979-1980 period).
Unfortunately for Mr. T., his timing on buying gold was not particularly fortuitous. Bloomberg provided the calculations for Mr. T.’s return after loading up on 14 carat (58.5% pure) gold in 1983 on the “A-Team.” At the time, his gold was valued at $43,316. Today, that same gold is now worth $123,480, a nifty 3x return. However, over that same time period, the Dow Jones increased from 144 to 1063, a 7x return. Of course, 1983 was a historically great time to buy stocks as it was the very beginning of a massive bull market in stocks. In 1983, gold was licking its wounds from a massive, parabolic run-up that ended dramatically in 1980 as Paul Volcker led the charge at the Federal Reserve to get serious about stamping out inflation.
Mr. T. made a spirited and energetic appearance on the Bloomberg set.
Source for Mr. T. images: Bloomberg Video
Mr. T. told Bloomberg’s Dominic Chu that his father always told him “it takes a smart man to play dumb” as he explained the origins of his affinity for gold. He bought his first gold chains in 1977, costing him $125 and taking him 3 months to get it off lay-away. He also likened gold to the sweat or tears from the sun as the Mayans believed. He even went back to the days of Jesus and Moses to explain the special qualities of gold. My biggest chuckle came when he told Chu with a big smile on his face that he is NOT selling his gold at these prices, but he is encouraging OTHER PEOPLE to sell their gold to Gold Promise. So who is the fool and where is the pity?
This past week, gold finally cooled off a bit and is back at the prices where I thought some kind of parabolic move was getting started.
I would like to think a good correction is coming that will give me a fresh opportunity to load up. However, this weekend’s meeting of world foreign ministers is not likely to abolish overly active printing presses of currency or eliminate competitive devaluations, so gold is likely just taking a rest for the next lap.
Finally, here is a chart of Cash America International (CSH). No parabolic move for CSH yet either.
*All charts created using TeleChart:
Be careful out there!
Full disclosure: long GG