The inter-war period (1918-1939) entailed a gold-bullion standard far less tied to market realities.

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The London Bullion Market Association sets the gold fix twice a day and the silver fix once a day.

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For six months he spent every Saturday evening with Suresh Hundia, president of the Bombay Bullion Association, to understand the gold market.

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"There now seems to be an oversupply in the gold market, " said an Ahmedabad-based bullion dealer, who didn't want to be identified.

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Miners continue to underperform bullion, though, with the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF flat in the last three months compared with a 5% gain for the GLD gold ETF.

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Another approach is to borrow bullion to sell today in the spot market and repay the gold, with interest, from the mines' future production.

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Central banks from China to Canada are holding far less of their foreign reserves in gold bullion these days, which means they have less to sell into the market and thereby depress prices.

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The rumor is that some large bullion banks used the Bernanke non-QE mention as a cover to try to create a gold and silver bear market.

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