In a Cparticularly unstable global geopoliticsJean-François Faure, president-founder ofAuCoffre.comexplains in detail why, faced with economic storms, l’or continues to be considered by many as a real lifeline.
Through the multiple crises crossed in recent years, gold has confirmed its status of essential refuge value. The approach proposed by Aucoffre.com responds to an increasing demand for heritage protection, faced with international uncertainties. Thanks to a simple, secure and accessible solution, Jean-François Faure offers individuals a concrete means to cross economic turbulence with more serenity.
Parisian posters: What is Aucoffre.com?
Jean-François Faure: Aucoffre.com is a platform for the purchase and sale of online precious metals, between individuals, with storage in high security trunk.
What is the procedure?
It’s very simple. Our members go to the Aucoffre.com site. They can buy or entrust us with physical products of their choice, gold, silver, or even ingots. We then store them on their behalf, at the Frankish Ports in Geneva; a high security zone. They can thus shelter their assets and manage them as they see fit. If the price requested is good, the product is sold quickly and, a few days later, the money is fired on their bank account.
Gold is often considered a refuge value. Is this true currently, in global geopolitical uncertainty?
Let us simply take as proof of recent events and their repercussions on the price of gold. Here are some significant examples that have occurred in the past 15 years. The 2008 financial crisis led to a strong increase in gold, which culminated between 2012 and 2013. In 2016, Brexit also caused a significant increase in the course. The trade war between China and the United States, in turn, stimulated a new increase in 2019. Things then accelerated: in 2020, the Pandemic of Covid-19 made the price of gold jump, until the announcement of the arrival of vaccines. A similar phenomenon occurred with post-Cavid inflation. In 2022, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia again led to a significant increase. More recently, in October 2023, the Hamas attacks in Israel rekindled strong geopolitical tensions, again accompanied by a leap of gold.
Subsequently, more technical factors took over. In February 2024, the simple announcement of a future decrease in interest rates was enough to encourage traders and individuals to buy gold, propelling prices at record levels. At the end of 2024, the election of Donald Trump and the uncertainties surrounding the dollar helped to maintain this dynamic. Even today, as long as we speak, in a climate of international crisis marked by trade tensions, the price of gold remains extremely volatile.
How does the evolution of interest rates of monetary banks in central banks influence the price of gold?
Very simply, what must be understood is that when a central bank fixes interest rates, it somehow determines the value of money, borrowed or invested. And for an investor, that amounts to wondering: “What will this money pay me if I lend it, so if I place it?”
If central banks set rates to a high level, it means that money – euros, dollars – reports. Some investors, including traders, say to themselves: “You might as well place my money directly in currencies is profitable, and without risk.” Conversely, if interest rates drop, money pays less. The attraction for currencies like the euro or the dollar decreases, especially if, in parallel, there is a rise in inflation. During the inflation, letting your money sleep to lose purchasing power. In this context, gold becomes more interesting. Here again, it is perceived as a refuge value. The investor can then say to himself: “Better to buy gold now, to resell it later, in a few months or a few years, with a capital gain.”
In your opinion, what is the most interesting: physical gold or rather financial products backed by gold?
It all depends on the goal you set. If your priority is to protect your savings in the long term and to have an asset of the last resort – including in the event of an extreme crisis, even a war – then physical gold is the only option. It is he that you literally have “in your pocket” and which remains accessible, whatever happens. You can buy it today and keep it for 30 years. In addition, it has advantageous taxation for resale.
For its part, the paper gold responds to a different logic. It is interesting for a more reactive, even speculative approach. You can buy it in the morning and resell it in the evening. It allows you to quickly place orders, with little costs and without conservation cost. But it presents a significant risk: it is issued by an institution. If the latter goes bankrupt, the paper gold can disappear with it. This is not the case with physical gold.
What is more, an individual does not necessarily have time, nor desire, to take the courses of gold day by day. And that’s good: gold, like currencies, can be very volatile. Exposing too emotional to it is often counterproductive. The solution, both simple and efficient, is to invest regularly, in small touches. For example, buy a little gold every month, at date and fixed time. This strategy smooths the purchase price over time and avoids giving in to panic or euphoria. It is often said that a too emotional investor gets less good results … that a monkey throwing darts at random …
You can keep a small amount of physical gold at home, like a form of “survival kit”. For the rest, it is better to rely on a reliable system that separates conservation and transaction. This is what structures like ours offer. With us, parts and ingots are stored in highly secure chests. When you place an online sales order, we will directly appear your order with your assets in our chests. This level of agility is not possible if you store your parts at home or in a bank.
Does the development of cryptocurrencies and digital assets threaten the traditional gold role as an active diversification?
No. To also be in parallel an actor in the world of cryptocurrencies, since the crypcool platform is exploited, we consider that they are assets. Bitcoin and gold are, in many ways, very complementary assets. They share a common goal: to offer an alternative to traditional currencies, especially in a logic of protection against their depreciation. These are two decentralized active ingredients, by nature or by design. Bitcoin, because it is based on a public and decentralized blockchain. Gold, because it is universally recognized, physically distributed all over the world, and escapes the control of any institution or state capable of manipulating its course. This is their strong common point.
But their journeys are very different. Gold has more than 5,000 years of history behind it, undisputed legitimacy and a central place in world exchange reserves – it is even the second reserve after the dollar, before the euro. It is also the third most liquid active in the world, after the American treasury bills and the Euro/dollar pair.
Bitcoin remains very young, still extremely volatile, and dominated by major players who do not exist on the gold market. It is far from being a large -scale exchange reserve, and although its infrastructure allows great liquidity, the market is still too close to compete.
That said, Bitcoin could, in the years or decades to come, get closer to the role that gold plays today. And quite ironically, one could say that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general, are the best marketing for gold: it has become almost systematic, when we talk about bitcoin, also speak of gold. And each time we compare both, we do, unwittingly, the promotion of gold.
What are the good practices to advise a beginner investor who wishes to integrate gold into his portfolio?
I can share some good practices which, statistically, give better results. First, we do not buy gold to resell it tomorrow. Gold is a long -term medium asset, a form of fire insurance for its assets. He makes sense when you already have a heritage to protect: euros, real estate, actions, or even cryptos.
In the event of a crisis – stock market crash, fall in Bitcoin – gold can serve as a buffer. But the best practice remains to sell it in the event of real necessity. Ideal? Never sell it, but transmit it.
Another good practice: to avoid emotional decisions. Better to buy regularly, in small touches, what is called the DCA – Dollar Cost Averaging. It is a method that is applied to cryptos or actions, and which also works very well with gold. It makes it possible to smooth fluctuations and to expose themselves to a historically bullish asset.
