Soros buys more gold and predicts bubble

I'm not a big fan of George Soros when it comes to his Keynesian and interventionist points of view, but one can only admire him when you look at his investment track record.

A couple of friends sent me a link to this Bloomberg report. Although I'm really not sure it will go up in a straight line from here and still expect a correction, it's worth knowing what investment gurus think.

March 1 (Bloomberg) -- George Soros is helping drive up gold prices by doubling his bet in a market even he considers a “bubble” as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Barclays Capital and HSBC Holdings Plc predict more gains before it bursts.

Soros Fund Management LLC, which manages about $25 billion, increased its investment in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest exchange-traded fund for the metal, by 152 percent in the fourth quarter, a Feb. 16 Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows. [...]

“When interest rates are low we have conditions for asset bubbles to develop, and they are developing at the moment,” Soros said at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January. “The ultimate asset bubble is gold,” he said.

In a Jan. 28 Bloomberg Television interview, the 79-year- old billionaire recalled that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned of “irrational exuberance” in financial markets three years before the technology bubble burst in 2000. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 89 percent in the period. Buying at the start of a bubble is “rational,” Soros said.
[...]
Tudor Investment Corp., based in Greenwich, Connecticut, increased its stake in Newmont Mining Corp., the largest U.S. gold producer, almost fourfold in the final quarter of 2009. Gold is “just an asset that, like everything else in life, has its time and place. And now is that time,” Paul Tudor Jones said in an October letter to clients.
[...]
Soros’ New York-based firm became the fourth-biggest investor in the SPDR Gold Trust by the end of 2009, 17 years after he made $1 billion breaking the Bank of England’s defense of the pound. The SPDR fund holds 1,107 tons, more than either Switzerland or China.

Paulson &Co. is the ETF’s biggest investor, with 31.5 million shares, regulatory filings show. With each representing almost a 10th of an ounce of gold, the hedge fund firm’s stake is the equivalent of about 96 tons, exceeding the holdings of Australia and Kuwait.

New York-based Paulson is also the biggest investor in Johannesburg-based AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Africa’s top producer. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF is Einhorn’s seventh-largest holding, according to a Feb. 16 filing.