Since the beginning of the regional banking crisis in the USA 1.2 billion dollars flowed into the SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLDa gold-backed ETF that invests in physical metal bars and is managed by World Gold Trust Services, LLC.

GLD’s price rose to a one-year high on Monday, as high as $183.84 per share. Each GLD share is intended to reflect the price of one tenth of a troy ounce of gold. gold prices briefly above $2,000/oz on Monday before retreating to $1,970/oz as of this writing.

As the banking sector was rocked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank, funds started flowing into the GLD from March 13th when $709 million was poured into the ETF. On March 17, GLD received an additional sizable inflow of around $400 million. Year-to-date inflows into GLD are now positive by $579 million.

SPDR Gold Trust Fund Flows: Periodic daily, weekly and cumulative YTD – Chart: Koyfin

A safe haven asset that outperforms both stocks and bonds

Gold has attracted investor interest lately due to a combination of factors including the banking crisis, expectations of lower Fed interest rates, no default risk and its traditional role as an inflation hedge.

In the current market environment, gold is emerging as the ideal asset for a portfolio and has recently outperformed both stocks and bonds.

GLD is up about 7% compared to month-to-date Invesco QQQ Trusts QQQ 4.4% profit, iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETFs AGG 2.5% increase, iShares US Treasury ETFs Government 2.4% profit, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trusts SPY flat performance and iShares Russell 2000 ETFs IWM‘s negative yield of 6.7%.

Continue reading: Will bank runs and bank failures trigger a run on gold and silver? How precious metals can protect your wealth

Monthly performance of GLD, QQQ, AGG, GOVT, SPY and IWM.

After accounting for both the price effect associated with the rise in gold prices and the effect on cash flows, GLD’s assets under management (AUM) has…