Why are people lining up for gold?
Every so often, investment discourse breaks containment, and you see people being interviewed about their investments on the news.
This time around, it's gold - and not just any gold, but cold, hard gold.
Gold's been around for 1000s of years - so why the sudden demand for it now? And should you join the gold rush?
Read on, dear Spaceshipper.
Jump to:
- Why do people invest in gold?
- So why are people lining up for gold right now?
- What is bullion?
- Why is gold so valuable?
- What are other ways to buy gold?
- What's a gold bug?
- What does Warren Buffett think of gold?
- Is there any gold in the Spaceship Voyager portfolios?
- Should you add gold to your investment portfolio?
Why do people invest in gold?
Some investors include gold as part of their long-term investment strategies.
But the people lining up around the block near bullion dealers are typically not doing that.
Demand for gold tends to rise when people are feeling shaky about the economy.
People store their money in a physical asset that has historically held its value, so if the dollar crashes, they believe they have a way to ride it out.
They also buy because they think it will mitigate inflation: the purchasing power of $10,000 in the bank might decline, but $10,000 worth of bullion might hold its value better.
Others simply catch FOMO: the price of gold has grown by more than 50% in 2025, at the time of writing.
Plus, some analysts have said there's still room for the price of gold to run, though as with all things investing, past performance doesn't guarantee future performance.
So why are people lining up for gold right now?
It's a perfect storm for gold right now.
Each year, Hindu people celebrate Diwali, which is also known as the Festival of Lights. Some people who celebrate Diwali buy gold for the festival to help usher in good luck for the year. This year, the first day of Diwali fell on 21 October.
Meanwhile, the price of gold has been rising all year - reaching an all-time high in October 2025, mainly attributed to demand based on:
- Global political uncertainty,
- Expectations of interest rate cuts meaning that investors might see a higher return on gold vs. cash,
- Forecasts of continued asset growth, and
- Media coverage causing fear of missing out.
What is bullion?
Bullion is a class of assets that includes precious metals in physical forms. Think gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.
The gold is refined to achieve a minimum purity standard, and can be sold in cast bar, minted bar, and coin forms.
Places that sell bullion can also be called bullions, or bullion dealers.
Why is gold so valuable?
Gold is a natural resource which means there's a limited amount of it.
It's expensive to find: gold mines cost many millions of dollars to run.
It's a sought-after product, used variously as an investment, in jewellery, in dentistry, aerospace, and pretty much every electronic device because it conducts electricity.
It also has a history of being the physical element that backed paper money.
And it's seen as a good hedge against a decline in national currencies.
What are other ways to buy gold?
The good news is, if you want to buy gold, you don't have to line up in 37-degree heat to buy it.
Other ways to get exposure include:
Gold ETFs
An ETF, or exchange traded fund, is a portfolio that's often created to track the performance of a specific index or sector.
A gold ETF generally aims to track the spot price of gold, before fees and costs. So instead of buying gold bullion, you can buy units in the ETF like you would ordinary shares, and watch the value go up and down alongside the gold price.
Buying into an ETF also gives you the opportunity to dollar-cost-average, and you can generally sell as soon as you need the money.
You also don't have to worry about getting insurance for your gold bars, or keeping it somewhere safe.
ETFs have their own fees and costs included so it's important to do your research if you're considering making an investment in one.
Gold mining stocks
Some investors like to invest in gold mining stocks. At the time of writing there are 167 gold companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), and still countless more on global markets. Investing in individual companies can be more risky, because you have to feel confident you're picking a winner - and even then, there's no guarantee of success.
Gold mining ETFs
Gold mining ETFs generally aim to mimic the performance, before fees and costs, of the gold mining industry as a whole. For example, the VanEck Gold Miners ETF includes 81 gold mining companies that also meet market cap and average daily trade value minimum amounts.
Gold futures
This is a way to speculate on what you think the price of gold will be, by buying future-dated contracts that let you buy or sell gold in hopes of making a profit.
What's a gold bug?
A gold bug is like a crypto bro - someone who's convinced about the long-term value and stability of gold, especially in contrast to the fallibility of governments and economies.
US President Herbert Hoover was perhaps one of the most famous gold bugs: "We have gold because we cannot trust governments," he's attributed as saying.
What does Warren Buffett think of gold?
What does the GOAT say?
Warren Buffett has said that buying gold is a good way of investing in fear. He says that people buy gold when they're scared, and so to profit from it, you have to hope that other people are even more scared in the future so the price will go up.
His investment philosophy has always been to invest in profitable companies, and gold neither produces cash flow nor creates value over time, he argues.
In 2020, Berkshire Hathaway surprised everyone by investing in a gold mining company, although the company sold its shares that same year.
Is there any gold in the Spaceship Voyager portfolios?
The Spaceship Origin Portfolio is a rules-based portfolio of 200 of the largest global and Australian companies by market cap, with blue chip and established stocks.
At the time of writing, some of these stocks include Australian and international gold-mining companies, and others, including mining companies with gold exposure.
Should you add gold to your investment portfolio?
Whether or not you invest in gold depends on your personal circumstances and investment goals.
Historically it's tended to hold its value or even rise, independent of what the stock market is doing. But on the other hand, you can generally only make money from your bar of gold if you sell it at a profit.
Some view it as a safe haven investment because it tends to rise in value during periods of market turbulence, for example, during the Global Financial Crisis, according to CBS, the S&P 500 fell by 56.8% while the price of gold rose by 25.5%.
Ultimately, our general thesis remains no matter what you invest in: make sure you understand it, make sure you can afford it, be prepared for the value of your investments to rise and fall with the market, and seek personal financial advice if you're unsure.
