Gold profit-taking heaviest since last March's record...

 

GOLD's latest run of fresh record prices met the most new investors in over four years in April. But it also spurred the heaviest profit-taking, net of demand, in more than 12 months on BullionVault, writes Adrian Ash at the world-leading marketplace.

 

Now caring for a record $4.6 billion of securely-stored gold (£3.4bn, €4.0bn) for its global clientbase − nine-in-10 of whom live in Western Europe or North America − BullionVault saw the number of investors choosing to buy gold for the first jump 56.0% last month from March's figure, and it rose 121.6% from April last year to reach the most since February 2021.

 

But the volume of gold selling leapt again, leading to the 5th heaviest net monthly outflow by weight since BullionVault's live 24/7 marketplace opened 20 years ago.

 

So while Trump's chaotic return to the White House has spurred a new wave of investors buying gold for the first time, the record gold prices which his policies have prompted are meeting heavy profit-taking from existing owners.

 

That includes investors who first chose to buy gold earlier this year, seizing a quick profit as the surge in prices trumps longer-term fears over the impact of Trump's policies. Indeed, 2025's new gold buyers were 70.0% more likely to sell in April than investors who began buying gold during the previous five years.

 

And why not? Anyone choosing to buy gold on BullionVault in January, February or March was, on average, offered a gain in US Dollar terms of 10.7% last month net of all costs (6.2% in UK Pounds, 4.0% in Euros).

 

 

Across BullionVault's total client base in April, the number of people starting or adding to their gold holdings rose 26.5% from March's figure to the most since February 2021, depths of that winter's Covid wave and lockdowns.

 

The number of sellers meanwhile rose by 51.1% to the most since March last year's record high, when a surge in Chinese demand and trading drove global gold prices sharply higher.

 

Together that put the Gold Investor Index − our unique measure of sentiment based solely on actual trading behaviour on the world's largest marketplace for personal gold investment − at 54.8 in April.

 

Higher by 0.2 points from March and 3.2 points above April last year, that reading was 1.2 above the index's prior 12 months' average. Any figure above 50.0 means that buyers outnumbered sellers on BullionVault. The Gold Investor Index set a decade peak of 65.9 as the Covid crisis struck in March 2020, and it set a series low of 47.5 on March last year's heavy profit-taking.

 

But while the count of investors choosing to buy gold this April outnumbered those who chose to sell for the 13th month in a row, the quantity of selling outweighed demand by almost half-a-tonne (452 kilograms), the widest margin since March 2024's record 1-tonne outflow (992kg). That reversed more than five times the net inflow made in January-to-March (86kg) − the first quarterly inflow since Q2 2023 − with BullionVault users taking profit on more $46 million of gold (£35m, €41m).

 

So with gold's new all-time highs destroying jewelry demand worldwide as Western investment remains muted net-net, this bull market is being driven by China's latest gold investing surge, plus the ongoing bid from central banks wanting to cut their exposure to US assets, most especially the Dollar.

 

A new wave of private investment in Europe suggests similar anxiety, and April's surge in first-time investors was led by the UK, Spain and Germany, where April's inflow of new users rose 121.8%, 147.5% and 66.9% respectively above their prior 5-year monthly averages. But while the number of new US buyers was, comparatively, quiet once more in April, it did rise 45.9% month-on-month and finally joined all Western European nations in topping its previous 5-year monthly average (+39.8%). That's something not seen in four years outside of April 2023's 'mini banking crisis' and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March 2022.

 

Meantime, the President's back-tracking on tariffs (and on firing US Fed chairman Jerome Powell) have seen some of the heat coming out of the gold price. But the damage done to the Dollar and to America's long-term investment appeal only adds to the appeal of gold as an all-weather hedge against geopolitical and financial volatility.