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ist in 1914. Within short time, mainly due to the first World War consequences, the majority of the capitalist countries stopped minting Gold coins, and limited the exchange of paper money into Gold, before the global economic crisis of 1929-33 permanently halted it. The gold ceased to be ‘money’ and shifted its function as states and central banks start accumulating it in their coffers as a mean of payment and security for international loans.

In 1944, promoted by U.S.A. and England, committees representing 45 countries met at Bretton Woods creating the International Trade Organization (ITO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The bright metal was priced at $ 35 per ounce, quotation at which U.S. agree to purchase it by anyone and to sell it only to central banks.

In 1948, France become the first country to legalize Gold trading, followed by Switzerland in 1951, which fixed no barriers neither to Gold imports nor exports. Anyway, it is the 17th of March 1968 that has to be considered as the official date of birth of Gold market where price was strictly established by supply and demand. As a consequence, Gold market price promptly rise to $ 45 per ounce in the same year.

On the 15th of August 1971, president Nixon’s administration removed the convertibility between dollar and Gold, undermining the main pillar of Bretton Woods system and opening the door for major price increments.

In fact, within the seventies, we can easily observe the first strong rupture of equilibrium between supply and demand for the precious metal, as the dollar crisis led traders to several significant purchases of Gold. This can be considered as the first time in which Gold took on its main role of hedge against inflation, dollar instability or periods of falling assets value.

Especially in periods characterized by high inflation and extremely high level of public debt or in times of uncertainty and poor economic performances, Gold confirmed its role of ‘safe haven’ for investors. For this reason, Gold is currently consider as ‘quality’ financial asset and it is not the center of attention just for currency traders and central banks directorates, as even on the stock markets, more and more Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) or private investors keep Gold price under constant observation.

Each time that rumors concerning financial market stability reappear, Gold reinforce its role within the global financial system. From the beginning of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Gold quotation has risen by 44% [4] . This outstanding performance is still more impressive if we take into account the losses suffered by other assets classes or investments.

For example, within the same period, the S&P 500 lost 11.6%, the Dow-Jones commodity index (DJUBS) decreased by 21,8% and the Oil price plunged by more than 22% [5] .

Source: Gold World Council, New York Stock Exchange

Moreover, we have to underline that the difference would still be more dramatic if calculated just few months ago. At a first view, the sharply contrasting result obtained by Gold and all the other asset during the current crisis, can easily lead us to indicate Gold as a counter cycle asset. In fact as Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom, main character of John Updike's novels, trying to explain his wife the reason why he has just spent more than 11,000 dollars to