Richard Russell: my take on gold

Here's a short extract from from Richard Russell's Dow Theory Letters reiterating his position and strong commitment in gold's generational bull market:

August 25, 2010 -- Dennis Gartman is an experienced commodity trader. Dennis has been very cautious about gold; he “sort of “ likes gold, so he calls himself a “gold agnostic.” For this reason it’s most interesting to read what Dennis says about gold in today’s report.

“Turning, then to gold and other metals, prices turned sharply for the better yesterday as the world rushed out of equities and looked for any safe harbors that were available. Certainly the rush to the Swiss franc was obvious, as noted above, and so too the rush into sovereign debt securities. But frankly, the rush was on to gold once again. We remain long what we have referred to as an ‘insurance’ position in gold, but we own it in terms of EUROs and /or of British pounds sterling, otherwise we remain an agnostic. To assuage our friends who are gold-bug-leaners, we shall not be short of gold. Nothing likely shall ever turn us manifestly bearish of it. But for the moment we are simply hard upon the sidelines, owning only this small ‘insurance’ position and comfortably in that position.

“Might we be enticed back to the bullish side of the market eventually? Of course we might. If the situation in the global equities markets became dire, we might move from agnosticism to ‘faith.” If we were to see the monetary authorities throwing caution to the wind and massively explode their balance sheets, we might be enticed away from our agnosticism to ‘faith.’ If the political situation were to become untoward, and patently uncomfortable, we’ll throw our agnosticism into a heap and join the gold market faithful. But until then, agnosticism works for us.”

Russell response — I can understand Gartman’s caution. Dennis is an old-time trader, and he’s seen a lot of traders get killed by taking huge and wrong positions.

My own position is that gold is in a clear and obvious primary bull market. These situations come along maybe two or three times in a lifetime. I was convinced back in 1999 that the bear market in gold had ended with gold selling at 256. In the year 2000 they were literally giving gold mining shares away. At that time gold shares were so ridiculously cheap that I told subscribers that they should buy these stocks (many selling for just a few dollars a share) and hold them as perpetual warrants.

At the same time I told my subscribers to start buying bullion one-ounce coins and “put ‘em away.” I’ve suggested that my subscribers do the same thing ever since.

I know bull markets, and I’ve never seen or experienced a primary bull market that didn’t end with a third speculative phase—this is the time when a bull market “blows its top”. I feel certain that the current huge bull market in gold will do the same.

But I have other reasons for being bullish about gold. Gold is the only real Constitutional money. The fiat paper that we’ve been using as money is only money because our government says “it’s money.” If the US government told you that printed paper was real money and legal for the payments of all debts, would you believe them. Well, you already have believed your government.

But I maintain that the truth will out, and that fiat paper is a fraud that will be found out. When that happens and people realize that they have been hoodwinked by their government, there will be such a rush (including both fear and greed) for gold that it will make the recent tech mania look like conservative investing.

As I write at midday, Dec. gold is up over nine dollars. Gold has been up 8 out of the last 10 days. As the months go by, we are pressing ever-closer to the speculative phase of the gold bull market. That will be something and even terrifying to see.

I am pleased to say that many of my older subscribers are now in the process of getting rich on their gold holdings. I’ve said over and over that one of the most difficult things to do in investing is to get in early on a primary bull market and ride the bull through to the latter part of its final speculative third phase.

The market seldom gives you the chance to get rich. This gold market has defied the odds and allowed its early followers and believers to get rich.

Anyway, that’s my take on gold and why you should own it and why you should follow my advice.

Richard Russell