Investors apparently believe the 12-year-old gold rally, which stalled earlier this year, is back in force.
Investors put $7.7 billion into gold exchange-traded products (ETPs), which include notes and funds, in the third quarter, the highest inflow since the second quarter of 2010, according to ETF Securities, MarketWatch reports.
Gold ETPs have a record $151 billion of assets under management.
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Continued easing by central banks in the United States, Europe, China and Japan has sparked gold buying recently amid concern the easing will spark inflation.
The buying helped send the precious metal to a 10-month high last week, when the December Comex contract reached $1,798.10. On Wednesday the contract closed at $1,765.10.
Investors have come to use exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded notes as their investment of choice to gain an exposure to gold. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) ETF has more than $76 billion of gold in its coffers.
The fund’s shareholders range from the average Joe, to the hedge funds managed by investment titans George Soros and John Paulson.
While some market participants say a push above $1,800 is inevitable for the precious metal, others say it will take new impetus to push gold higher from here.
"Additional monetary policy easing in the United States and other countries is no longer fresh news, and so we do not anticipate further significant buying of gold based on monetary policy accommodation alone," James Steel, a metals analyst at HSBC, tells Reuters.
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