While some analysts argue that the continued climb in gold will increasingly rely on purchases by central banks, the world鈥檚 biggest asset manager is seeing a different pattern unfold.
Kevin Feldman, a managing director at BlackRock鈥檚 iShares group, writing on the company鈥檚 blog site that 鈥渙ver the past year, we鈥檝e seen a noticeable shift from larger institutional purchases of gold and silver ETFs to a significant increase in individual investors doing so.鈥�
The total number of accounts holding the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) and the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) is up 83%, he adds. Of those, most represented relatively small share holdings by individual investors.
To put it more specifically, the number of accounts with 1,000 shares or less doubled for SLV and almost tripled for IAU in the past 12-months through June, Feldman noted.
The piece goes on to find that the ease of use ETFs have given gold investors is one reason behind the massive new appeal of precious metals. Feldman also points to 鈥減erformance chasing鈥� as another likely suspect. Either way, it brings up a question of how 鈥渟ticky鈥� gold and silver ETF assets will prove to be in the future.