IT'S OFFICIAL: Gold Is In A Bear Market

Gold bugs point to the precious metal as a safe haven. But gold is hovering near $1,540 and is well off its 52-week high of $1,918.

Dennis Gartman, investor and publisher of The Gartman Letter, says gold is just another "entity of trade" that rises and falls.

"Save havens do not fall 7% in two weeks as gold in dollar terms has done. Save havens do not fall 3.6% in two weeks as gold in EUR terms has done.

Safe havens are safe. Safe havens are stable; gold is not safe and certainly it is not stable and to think otherwise is to learn a very serious lesson in the course of the past two weeks."

Gartman says he is long some gold as part of his "Armageddon" position and a hedge against the small possibility of a collapse in the global banking system. The political uncertainty in Greece and JP Morgan's $2 billion loss has raised the risk a little but for now he says, "we are agnostic regarding gold."


It's official: gold has fallen as much as 21 percent from its intraday record in September, according to Bloomberg, qualifying it for the distinction of being in a bear market.

That report notes that the closing price for an ounce of gold will have to settle at $1,513.52 or below in order to  close down 20 percent from its peak in August

The price of gold peaked at $1,923.70 per ounce in September.

The precious metal is currently trading at $1,547, down about 0.6 percent on the day.