BFI Group Blog

Gold has been a symbol of wealth, privilege, opulence and power for millennia. It has always been “the metal of kings” and it has been used to show off affluence and project dominance since time immemorial. However, gold owners have also been perceived as greedy, secretive, or suspicious for not investing their savings like “normal” investors. They instead choose to “hoard gold bars and coins” like Scrooge McDuck instead of opening a savings account or buying some bonds like everyone else.

The buzz is building as the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) prepares to officially launch its Gold Bar Integrity (GBI) database, the first steps in leading the world’s gold supply chain towards greater standardization, product integrity, and transparency. The physical precious metals market is taking the opportunities of this digital age in a new direction, and aXedras has harnessed that technology as creator, developer, and what will be the ongoing technical support behind it.

BFI Bullion’s managing director, Scott Schamber, recently appeared on a podcast out of the U.S. where he spoke in detail about the services BFI Bullion provides, how they set themselves apart from other international precious metals dealers, and how the political polarization in the US is causing investors to look for investment options – as well as alternative citizenship - outside of the US.

In a matter of days, barring similar circumstances to 2020, the most powerful nation on the planet will have a new leader. The implications for the rest of the world, both economically and geopolitically, are extremely important, as are those for both American and international investors. As is customary by now, this vote has been described by the media as “the most important election in history”, like the one four years ago and the one before that too. Levity aside though, it is not an exaggeration to say that this particular election cycle has been different than the ones that preceded it on quite a few different levels.

In our last edition of our BFI InSights, we looked at the new role gold is playing as an anchor in today’s global financial system. We made the case why precious metals in general have a promising outlook for the months and years to come. Over the course of the summer, gold has moved decisively higher, pushing through some very important resistance points and currently prices are trading around USD 2’615, so in recent weeks there has been a more than 10% gain for the yellow metal. However, as explained in our last update, the action in the gold market can’t be seen as isolated from all the other ongoing developments around the world.

The global financial, monetary and economic landscape is once again shifting and the changes that are already underway are bound to have a significant impact on investment strategies. After much speculation and anticipation, the Federal Reserve recently announced its decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points, very likely signaling a return to a more dovish policy direction.

As September rolled into October, tens of thousands of Bank of America customers found themselves logging into their accounts only to see that those accounts were temporarily unavailable…or even worse, with a zero balance! Some were stranded without access to their direct salary deposits, while others couldn’t pay rent on time. Let this be a warning the computer glitches are a glaring reminder of why “jurisdictional diversification” needs to become part of your vocabulary!

For the 14th year in a row, Switzerland continued its innovative advantage when it again ranked 1st in the Global Innovation Index (GII) published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The index assesses world economies leading in global innovation from amongst 133 countries using some 80 different indicators to measure their overall strengths and weaknesses.

It probably goes without saying that when you plan on buying physical bullion, you need to choose the dealer you are going to purchase from and store with well. Like any investment, that can be hard enough to do, but in a recent (and yet another!) case out of the U.S., apparently even choosing a reputable, recommended dealer isn’t enough. Once again, the victims are U.S. retirement account holders that were simply trying to protect their wealth.

If you read the (BFI Bullion Quarterly) Digger regularly, you know that we try to focus on and address what we are hearing about from you: our clients, partners, and other friends. While the first half of the year has been nothing short of wild, we continue to hear the same recurring questions in our conversations: one is no surprise, while the other is a classic.

In a very recent podcast by the World Gold Council, as part of their “Unearthed” series, they sat down with the Royal Canadian Mint to discuss what role the Mint is playing in shoring up the integrity and transparency of the global gold industry. The RCM is committed to implementing the Gold Bar Integrity Programme, and in doing so, proudly names aXedras’s technology and ecosystem for that purpose.

At the start of last June, Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price suffered a spectacular 99% drop. The nosedive wasn’t caused by legendary investor Warren Buffet allocating his entire portfolio to NFTs, but by a technical glitch that also affected 40 other stocks, including miner Barrick Gold, which briefly traded for 25 cents per share, compared to the $17 before the glitch.

Bank stability is something too many people have taken for granted for too long. After the last global financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent recovery, many naively believed that all serious systemic vulnerabilities have been addressed and bank collapses - or even worse, contagion scenarios - would be wildly unrealistic in the future.

Switzerland is (in)famous for many things. However, many of them do not even scratch the surface of what this country is all about. So, in honour of August 1st, our Swiss National Day, let’s take an in-depth look at our nation’s – and our people’s - DNA!

Consumed largely by recent US political news – the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and Joe Biden stepping down from the presidential race – it has been easy to overlook other important developments that can impact an investors’ big picture. One of those is the threat of de-dollarization, as US sanctions on Russia continue to make the BRICS countries, as well as others, wary of being hand-cuffed to the US dollar.

In the beginning of July, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland’s largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences, and Copenhagen Atomics, a Danish molten salt reactor developer, announced their large-scale experimental collaboration. The four-year agreement stands to put Europe in the pole position of the advanced nuclear technology field.

In mid-June, President Biden posted the following on his X account: “Zero. That was monthly inflation in May. There is more to do still, but this is welcome progress.” Do you believe it?‍

In our last update, we wrote about monetary policy and why 2024 might look very different from 2023. Until the 4th quarter of 2023, central banks maintained their hawkish tone and only in the final weeks of 2023 did the markets begin to consider the possibility of rate cuts in 2024. We are already in the middle of the second quarter of the year. While equities had a pretty positive start to the new year, the real action is currently in the precious metals market. In early March, gold was pushing through the critical resistance level of USD 2’080 and has since then moved to a new trading range, between USD 2’300 and USD 2’400.

In the current financial landscape, marked by es-calating and widespread systemic risks, efficient and effective risk management has become paramount. As global markets grapple with uncertainties ranging from geopolitical tensions to economic instability, in-vestors face mounting challenges in safeguarding their assets and achieving sustainable returns.

The US elections are still a few months away. However, the economic shifts and trends that have developed over the last three and a half years will not significantly change. So, let's take a closer look at what the Biden administration has achieved economically. According to the president himself, Bidenomics is practically a synomym for 'The American Dream'. How accurate is that estimation?