Gold is doing something weird right now. It just hit $4,641.81 per troy ounce on January 15, 2026. That is an all-time record high. Seriously. If you’d told someone two years ago that gold would be flirting with five thousand bucks, they probably would have laughed you out of the room. But here we are.
Honestly, the market is a bit of a fever dream lately. You've got central banks buying up bars like they’re going out of style, and then there's the whole mess with the Federal Reserve. It’s a lot to keep track of.
The current price of gold per troy ounce and the $5,000 question
As of this morning, the spot price is hovering around $4,604 to $4,612. It’s basically a high-stakes game of musical chairs. Yesterday, January 14, we saw Comex gold settle at $4,616.30, which was actually a slight dip from the intraday peak. People are taking profits. You can't really blame them. When an asset jumps 68% in a year, sticking around for the last 1% feels like playing with fire.
Why is this happening? It’s not just one thing. It's a "perfect storm" that actually earned the name.
First off, the US Federal Reserve is in the middle of a literal criminal investigation. Chair Jerome Powell is being looked at by federal prosecutors, and that has sent the dollar into a bit of a tailspin. Gold loves a weak dollar. It thrives on it. When people lose faith in the guys printing the money, they run toward the shiny yellow metal that’s been around since the Pharaohs.
Then you have the geopolitical side. The US capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela? That sent shockwaves through the energy and metals markets. Traders like Jim Wyckoff over at Kitco have been pointing out that precious metals are pricing in way more risk than the stock market right now.
Who is actually buying all this gold?
It’s easy to think it’s just preppers and billionaires. It's not.
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The big players are central banks. Goldman Sachs is tracking about 80 tons of gold purchases per month from official sectors. China and India are leading the charge. They are trying to "de-dollarize"—basically making sure they aren't totally reliant on the US financial system. Every time the US uses sanctions as a weapon, another country decides it needs more gold in its basement.
- Central Banks: Buying about 190 tonnes a quarter, according to J.P. Morgan.
- ETFs: Investors are finally piling back into gold-backed funds after years of sitting on the sidelines.
- Retail Buyers: Bar and coin demand is expected to top 1,200 tonnes this year.
JP Morgan’s Natasha Kaneva and her team have been remarkably spot-on. They’re calling for an average price of $5,055 by the end of 2026. Some folks, like the team at Yardeni Research, are even more aggressive, slapping a $6,000 target on it.
Why the troy ounce matters more than you think
Most people hear "ounce" and think of a bag of sugar. They're wrong. A troy ounce is about 31.1 grams. A standard kitchen ounce is only 28.3 grams. If you're buying gold and the seller is using standard ounces, you’re getting ripped off by about 10%.
Precision is everything in this market.
In the early days of 2026, we saw some wild technical swings. Gold broke past $4,000 like it was nothing back in 2025. Now, technical analysts like Bart Melek at TD Securities are looking at **$4,381** as the new "floor." If the price stays above that, the trend is still your friend. If it breaks below, things might get ugly for a bit.
The supply problem nobody talks about
Mining gold is getting harder. It's not like you can just flip a switch and get more. It takes 10 to 20 years to bring a new mine online. We aren't finding many massive deposits anymore.
When demand spikes like it has this January, and the supply from mines is basically flat, there’s only one way for the price to go. Up.
Even recycling isn't keeping pace. Most people are holding onto their jewelry because they think the price is going higher. This creates a "physical squeeze." We’re seeing elevated lease rates in London and Singapore, which is just a fancy way of saying there isn't enough physical metal to go around for everyone who wants it right now.
Is it too late to get in?
That’s the million-dollar question. Or the four-thousand-six-hundred-dollar question.
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Many financial advisors, the ones who aren't trying to sell you a gold-plated doomsday bunker, usually suggest a 5% to 10% allocation. It’s a hedge. It’s insurance. You don't buy house insurance because you want your house to burn down; you buy it in case it does.
Gold doesn't pay a dividend. It just sits there. But when the S&P 500 starts looking shaky and the Fed is under investigation, "just sitting there" looks pretty attractive.
Practical steps if you're watching the current price of gold per troy ounce:
- Check the "Spread": If you're buying physical coins, you’ll pay a premium over the spot price. Right now, those premiums are high because everyone is panicked.
- Look at ETFs: If you don't want to worry about a safe or insurance, funds like GLD or IAU track the price pretty closely.
- Watch the $4,450 Level: Technical analysts see this as a critical support zone. If it holds, $5,000 is the next logical stop.
- Diversify: Don't dump your life savings into gold bars. It’s volatile. It can drop $100 in an hour if a peace treaty gets signed or inflation data comes in lower than expected.
The market is currently digesting the massive gains from the first two weeks of January. We might see some "sideways" trading for a while. But with the structural shift toward the East and the ongoing mess in US domestic policy, the yellow metal isn't losing its luster anytime soon.
Keep an eye on the 20-day moving average, currently around $4,452. As long as we stay above that, the bulls are still in charge of the china shop.