In a very interesting video about the gold market today, Stephen Flood of Gold and Silver Investments is interviewed by Javier Blas of the FT . In ‘Time for the Midas touch?’, the commodities correspondent of the FT, Javier Blas looks at the issues surrounding gold investments in the current economic climate.

Javier Blas is right to warn that the party is normally over for an asset class when the retail investor arrives to the party. Meaning that when an asset class is being invested in by the mainstream public in a very significant way as seen in the Nasdaq bubble and recent property bubbles internationally, it may be time to be wary and either sell or reduce weighting to that asset class.

At the same time, it is important to remember that gold remains a fringe investment at best with a tiny, tiny fraction of the western investment public having invested in physical gold bullion.

We are a long way from mass mania and the mass participation associated with market tops (as seen in stock and property markets in recent months). Most investors do not know what gold bullion is or how to invest in gold. Gold is featured in the mainstream media extremely infrequently and even then it is often featured in a biased and sometimes inaccurate and unfair way.

When gold is featured on a daily and even weekly basis in the daily newspapers in a very positive light and there are supplements dedicated to investing in gold and precious metals and there is a mainstream opinion that “you cannot lose with gold” or “gold always goes up in the long term” then it will be time to sell or at least go underweight gold and silver.

Joe Kennedy’s shoe shine boy and the man in the street and most in the financial services industry itself are barely aware of the importance of diversifying into gold – when they are and we do have mass participation in the gold market it will be time to go underweight gold.