Throughout 2010, the Gold ETF industry continued to grow and expand. The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning in 2009 about leveraged and converse items that lowered enthusiasm of exotic listings in the beginning but after sometimes investors got back their momentum and started investing with full confidence. The term Gold ETF means Exchange Traded Fund and is traded only on the major stock exchanges in the world. In the U.S, the American Stock Exchange works as the regulatory body while NYSE, and NASDAQ have the permission to trade EFTs. When someone buys a Gold ETF, he is investing in collective companies, rather than a single company. After an average year in 2009, investors started to flow in more fund into the Gold ETF in early 2010, showing a fresh signal that demand for gold will sustain for a longer period. And it just proved the case at the end. As investors started to become more proverbial with benefits of Gold ETF, a positive eagerness was present all through the year. As the time passed, more and more fervor was observed among the investors. This happened as the intensified global currency war and overflow of printed money left investors with very little options rather than investing in Gold ETFs. In 2010, gold outperformed both silver and platinum. As interest in Gold ETFs continued to erect, rivalry between issuers for market share had intensified significantly. Demand for palladium and platinum is still uncertain, which forced demand of gold to go even more up. In later part of the year, a noteworthy number of investors started choosing gold as an alternative currency in a bid to protect their investment against fiat currency decline. China maintained a tightened market when it came to silver, platinum and palladium. Europe’s recession also lowered the demand for these commodities. As consequences, gold got back its ‘golden’ time. According to BlackRock, global industry assets crossed the $1tn mark in 2010. Gold also broke the $1000 per ounce mark this year. Latest figures from BlackRock suggest that the Gold ETF will post a 19.6% year on year growth in 2010. There are 916 ETFs listed in the U.S. As of September 2010 these EFTS booked $882bn in combined assets, which in $189bn more than the same period last year. This data signifies that Gold ETFs had passed a good year in 2010. SPDR Gold Trust, Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF and ProShares Ultra Gold were among the popular venues for trading gold. Throughout the year, gold ETF grabbed plenty of financial headlines. The World Gold Council reported that its gold ETF inflows in the second quarter of 2010 increased to 273.8 tonnes, a new record for the company. iShares also had a good year . In April, the company announced that its assets under management had passed $500bn. Other players including Vanguard also experienced good profit margins. Though investors pulled out several times due to short time volatility, ETF Securities experienced strong inflows throughout the year. Average daily trading volumes of the global ETF increased by one fifth where Asian and Latin American countries played major part. This was due to a raise in interest among Asian and Latin American investors onto this emerging market theme. Gold rallied to a record $1,218.30 an ounce on early December 2010 but decreased at $1096.20 after sometimes. Analysts at Goldman Sachs predict that gold prices will continue the uptrend in the coming year. Other experts expect that the industry will hit at pick at the later part of 2011.
