This year, the gold price has continued to fluctuate upwards, with the main contract of COMEX gold futures rising nearly 30% year-to-date. The market's enthusiasm for gold accumulation has been heating up, and the sales volume of banks' gold accumulation business has also increased accordingly. Against this backdrop, several banks have recently raised the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation business again.

Industry analysts believe that the main reason for the increase in the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation by several banks is the rapid fluctuation of gold prices, and banks need to control risks according to the standard of 1 gram as the minimum business unit for gold accumulation products. For investors, the recent gold price fluctuations are relatively large, and they should avoid blindly following the trend and reasonably control their positions.

Banks frequently adjust the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation

In the past week, four banks have successively announced an increase in the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation, with an increase ranging from 50 yuan to 100 yuan. After the adjustment, the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation at China Construction Bank and Industrial Bank has increased from 600 yuan to 700 yuan, and the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation at Bank of China has increased from 600 yuan to 650 yuan. The earliest adjustment in this round, China Agricultural Bank, announced that the gold accumulation purchase starting point will be adjusted to a floating method based on gold prices.

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Among them, some banks have adjusted the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation several times within the year. Taking China Construction Bank as an example, on September 25, China Construction Bank issued an announcement on its official website stating that the starting amount for the bank's individual gold accumulation business (including average daily accumulation and optional daily accumulation) has been increased from 600 yuan to 700 yuan. In March of this year, the bank had just increased this starting point from 500 yuan to 600 yuan. In just half a year, the bank's minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation has increased by 40%.

The reporter learned from the industry that the main reason for several banks to adjust the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation is the continuous rise in gold prices recently. According to the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Gold Accumulation Business" issued by the People's Bank of China, gold accumulation refers to the financial institutions' business of opening gold accounts for customers according to the agreement with the customers, and recording the customers' liabilities for depositing a certain weight of gold within a certain period. The minimum business unit for gold accumulation products is 1 gram. Banking depositary financial institutions can refer to the Shanghai Gold Exchange price or other fair market prices when pricing gold accumulation products.

Since the beginning of this year, the gold price has continued to fluctuate upwards. Under the influence of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut news, on September 26, the main contract of COMEX gold futures once broke through 2700 US dollars/ounce, setting a historical record. However, there was a slight callback on the 29th, and as of the reporter's writing, it has dropped to around 2680 US dollars/ounce. The COMEX gold futures this year have soared from 2067 US dollars/ounce to around 2650 US dollars/ounce recently, with an increase of about 30%.

Therefore, according to the standard of 1 gram as the minimum business unit for gold accumulation products, the minimum purchase amount for bank gold accumulation has also increased. If the gold price continues to rise, there is still a possibility that the minimum purchase amount for gold accumulation will continue to rise.

Can you still get on the train?

The surge in gold prices this year has also brought the gold accumulation business to a fever pitch, and the enthusiasm for accumulating gold has been heating up continuously.Last month, a client made a one-time purchase of over 100,000 yuan worth of accumulated gold, and at the beginning of this month, they bought another 30,000 to 40,000 yuan. A customer manager from a joint-stock bank told reporters that since the beginning of this year, there has been a noticeable increase in clients inquiring about accumulated gold services, especially those who entered early and made profits in the early stages are even more enthusiastic about "re-purchasing." The bank's internal precious metal-related business indicators have been completed particularly quickly recently.

Unlike in the past, this year's surge in accumulated gold purchases has seen a large influx of young people.

A state-owned bank employee in Dongguan told reporters that most of the recent buyers of accumulated gold services are young people. Unlike the older generation, these young people mostly use a fixed investment method to purchase accumulated gold. The amount purchased each time is not much, but the frequency of purchases is relatively high. Therefore, they are still relatively sensitive to the increase in the minimum purchase amount.

Xiao Yao, a Dongguan investor born after 1995 (pseudonym), told reporters that he has recently joined several gold discussion communities. The group regularly updates price reminders and accumulated gold quotes from various platforms, and everyone is waiting for a good opportunity to "get on board." However, some investors are worried that the current gold price is already "too high to bear," and it will fall back later.

Can accumulated gold still get on board? Many in the industry believe that it should be considered cautiously.

Generally speaking, the price of accumulated gold is linked to the market price of gold. Recently, gold prices have fluctuated significantly, and whether they can continue to rise remains unknown.

Some institutional views on the gold market are relatively optimistic.

Caida Futures analyst Li Jinwen believes that the Federal Reserve still has the possibility of a large-scale interest rate cut. The current market expectation is that there will be a 25 basis point interest rate cut in November and December, but if the inflation rate drops or the labor market weakens more than expected, there is also a possibility of another 50 basis point interest rate cut in November. In addition, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is escalating and may spill over, which increases the safe-haven attributes of gold prices, making it easy to rise and difficult to fall, and the market will continue to be strong.

"Gold prices may fluctuate at high levels in the short term, and there may still be room for upward movement in the long term." Huatai Securities analyst Li Bin believes that overall, factors such as a 50BP interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve and Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's hawkish stance have a relatively limited impact on gold prices. Coupled with the current gold price being relatively fully priced for US interest rate cuts, it is expected that gold prices will continue to fluctuate at high levels in the short term. Looking at the long term, the trend of the US economy after interest rate cuts and the US elections will be important factors driving gold prices to rise further.

However, some institutions have warned of the risk of gold price fluctuations. China Construction Bank issued a warning that the recent domestic and international precious metal price fluctuations have intensified, and market risks have increased. Investors are asked to enhance their awareness of risk prevention in personal gold accumulation and other precious metal trading businesses, control positions reasonably, pay attention to the changes in position holding and margin balance in a timely manner, and invest rationally.It is worth noting that "Accumulated Gold" involves certain transaction costs, and it is not easy to buy low and sell high in the short term. According to incomplete statistics by the reporter, the current market fees for such accumulation services are mostly between 0% and 0.5%, while the redemption fee rates range from 0.5% to 1.5%. Taking a certain state-owned bank as an example, the reporter saw in the bank's Accumulated Gold agreement that both the accumulation fee rate and redemption fee rate for gold accumulation products are 0.5%. In addition, the redemption quotation for Accumulated Gold is usually determined by the bank itself, and the redemption cash price is generally lower than the price of physical gold bars.

Some banking professionals believe that due to the existence of certain transaction costs, it is not easy to make a profit by buying low and selling high in the short term. Investors are advised to clarify their own needs, set a psychological expectation, and not blindly follow the trend.