By James Mackintosh

Forget the flight to safety. Forget protection against inflation. Nothing works as it should when everyone else who owns it is rushing to raise cash. Even gold.

The precious metal entered a bear market on Monday, retreating more than 20% from its all-time high and wiping out all its gains this year-though it pared losses when President Trump delayed his deadline for Iran to allow ships out of the Persian Gulf.

Buyers who turned into sellers of gold in recent weeks include private investors, who had piled in last year, and funds that trade on momentum. Those who might sell include central banks needing dollars to buy oil, anyone who used debt to get into the trade and those rebalancing their portfolios as stocks and bonds fall in price.

This chart shows how buyers flocked to the biggest gold ETF, ticker GLD, an easy way for buyers without secure storage to own gold, pumping in almost $30 billion. Since the initial U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran they've pulled $6 billion, all the money that went in this year.

More in my latest Streetwise column on the crowded gold trade, along with fundamental issues such as the stronger dollar and rising bond yields-read it here.

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March 23, 2026 09:26 ET (13:26 GMT)

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