All IMO, POG is far more likely to move up than down in the...

All IMO, POG is far more likely to move up than down in the foreseeable future. The recent sharp SP decline of gold mining stock is more likely the result of instos shaking the trees. The likes of SLR and RMS will bounce back as quickly as they were smashed down.

Coalition Greenwich (formerly Greenwich Associates) in partnership with the World Gold Council conducted a study between October 2020 and January 2021 that queried nearly 500 institutional investors across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, examining shifting allocation priorities and strategies (gold and broader asset classes as investors face an unprecedented global reset).

https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/institutional-portfolio-strategies-for-the-post-pandemic-period. They reached the conclusion that:

“As investors reposition their portfolios for the post-COVID-19 period, institutional allocations to gold are on the rise.These growing allocations reflect institutions’ mounting concerns about inflation and increasing demand for inflation protection tools. Expanding gold allocations also point to institutions’ desire to diversify portfolios and find sources of return enhancement at a time of pronounced uncertainty about both short- and long-term market direction.”

It is a myth that the “smart money” is going out of gold into Cryptos. Institutional investors might add Crypto into their portfolio but it does not necessarily mean they are pulling money out of gold. Cryptos are no substitute for gold for balancing risk profiles.

https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/gold-market-commentary-july-2021#question3

“Cryptocurrencies – bitcoin in particular – and gold are ‘inversely correlated’because cryptos tend to behave like risk-on assets while gold as a risk-off asset.”