ETF flows and supply shortages

We know that there is very little physical gold available. Central banks and related buyers appear to take out any loose stock. Physical ETFs are the elephant in this room…

The investment community and wider public stopped being net sellers in April, and since then have added a paltry 120 tonnes to their combined ETFs. Looking at net demand, in North America last month investors added 16.2 tonnes, Europe sold 1.7 tonnes and Asia added nearly 2 tonnes. Aside from US investors, Europe just doesn’t get the gold story, and Asians have been squirreling away physical in preference to ETFs so we can ignore them.