Gold! What can you say about it?

I’ll resort to the usual snark. It’s shiny, it’s sun-colored, it must be a god.

When it comes to cupidity, men aren’t much different in 2025 than they were in 1520, which is to say at least as it regards gold, Hernán Cortés would be right at home in modernity. (He’d find a lot to like in the 2020s’ bloody conquests too.)

To this day, men suffer from the same “disease of the heart” as Cortés and his companions. Now, as then, it can “be cured only” by physical manifestations of wealth.

On Monday, bullion notched yet another new record high north of $4,420, adding to what was already a monumental 2025 gain.

There’s the updated chart. Gold’s more than doubled over two years.

The usual factors were cited for Monday’s fresh all-time highs: Geopolitical tensions (specifically, Donald Trump’s rendition of Pirates of the Caribbean) and the prospect of a more dovish Fed in 2026.

The figure below’s a reminder you don’t likely need: Gold’s on track for its best annual gain in — checks notes — 45 years.

Needless to say, bullion’s at the top of the cross-asset leaderboard. The next closest asset is emerging market equities, which’ve managed a ~30% gain.

I’m compelled to mention that central bank-buying — particularly by the Chinese — has bolstered bullion this year, as have retail investors. Inflows to gold funds total almost $100 billion for 2025.

In the December installment of BofA’s monthly fund manager poll, “Long gold” remained the second-most crowded trade, garnering nearly a third of the vote (figure on the left, below).

The figure on the right shows you the net share of respondents in the same survey who said gold’s overvalued plotted with a simple price chart.

So, gold’s a crowded trade and it’s probably trading rich to “fundamentals,” however you define the term when it comes to inert metal. Why keep buying?

Simple: It’s a disease of the heart.