Gold.

Gold is a commodity just like any other which can be bought and sold.The price of Gold is fixed twice a day on the London Bullion Market in the morning and afternoon. The general idea is that the price rises and falls due to availability and demand. If loads of people want it and there is little about then the price rises and vice versa.
However, things are more complicated these days. People are making offers to buy Gold at a price set today but they wish to take delivery in three months time. They pay 10% or so up front. Now they certainly do not want to physically have it in their office in three months time! So they hope that the price will rise. If it does rise, then they sell their Gold, which they have on contract at a lower price, at under the current asking price. Hopefully making a profit. The new buyer gets it slightly cheaper than the current asking price and the old owner makes a profit on the difference. As long as Gold is continually rising this is a nice little earner!
So with all of these people diving in and out of the market place the demand for Gold becomes a false one as far as actually needing it is concerned.The price is them artificially high. This time last year some group bought up all of the coffee for delivery later. Now they did not want tonnes of coffee. But they realise that four fifths of the whole World coffee market goes to America and the rest is divided up among other countries. Now I did not notice, but if the crop in Brazil was ruined by frost that wold create less supply to cover the demand leading to a higher price. If one group owns all the future coffee they can charge what they like and make a profit. The same thing happened recently when a group bought up all the copper futures and copper prices went through the roof. They made another fortune. It was more than likely the same group in each case as the funds required even to pay a percentage have to be huge in order to 'corner the market.'
Gold is being artificially pumped up ,price wise. Eventually when enough people are dragged in to keep the price rising the big money then slowly pulls out of the game leaving the smaller players with too much Gold available to buy and the price crashes as there is a glut on the market. By that time big money will have taken their profits and be looking for something else such as silver or other precious metals.
Silver prices tag along with Gold prices and there is a complicated formula ruling the game. At present, the Silver price is lower than it should be in relation to Gold and so it looks a good bet..
China is the biggest producer of other precious industrial metals like cadmium. Although they have plenty and are mining plenty the Chinese are not putting it out in the market place. This forces the price higher. By manipulation of the supply and demand curves against the price curves a mean price for a certain amount of supply is computed which is said to be the mean market position. The price rises and falls against that figure. So as you will see, market prices can be controlled artificially, very easily, to provide income for countries and investment Groups.An individual can make money too, if they spot the beginning of an upward trend and get onboard.But if money is a waste of paper where do they hide their profits?  One word DIAMONDS.
The amount of Diamonds in the market place is very very strictly regulated by the Diamond Board at De Beers again in London. The amount of new product is carefully controlled so as not to flood the market and reduce price with more supply. Demand is always going to rise as more and more diamonds are used industrially and people do need jewellery all the time.So prices remain stable and a great home for profits and savings just now.
The current Gold price is being artificially set by investment people diving in and out of the Gold market ramping up the price. It has nothing to do with supplies running short or demand rising it is merely being ramped up in price to attract the mug punters, in at the end, to keep the price supported, while others bail out . The is a price bubble and when this one burst look out!