In the firm’s view, gold has become a momentum investment rather than a fundamental one, and it cautions that historically investing in “hot” sectors has not been a particularly successful strategy. As Mr Bernstein points out, successful momentum investors are contrarian in their approach, selling at the peak of an investment’s popularity.

According to Mr Bernstein, the short term picture for gold appears relatively risky, noting that the performance of gold - traditionally a hedge against inflation - has begun to slide amid falling inflation expectations. “It will be interesting to see if gold’s performance can be maintained if inflation expectations continue to fall,” he said.

Despite risks to gold in the short term, Mr Bernstein sees that the long-term diversification benefits of gold are likely to hold: according to the firm’s research, in the last five years, gold has been the third best diversifying asset to a US equity portfolio - after art and long-term Treasuries.

In addition, the report also suggests that the prospect of geopolitical instability makes gold look more attractive as the metal tends to perform poorly during periods of peace, prosperity and price stability – all of which may be increasingly unlikely.

Despite the short term risks to holding gold, the report’s figures would certainly seem to support robust prices in the longer term. According to the predictions of Francisco Blanch, BAS-ML’s head of commodity strategy, the price of gold could rise to $1,500 over the next three years, an estimate matched by the firm’s technical assessment that an appropriate longer-term target for gold is $1,500-1,600.