Portfolio Plus, I didn't 'forget' that investors have options. If you re-read my post you'll see that I don't own the stock and express no sentiment... and also pointed out that gold could go down as well as up.
I agree with you that companies like IGR could get into trouble if the gold price falls significantly, but that should be fairly obvious. It's the same for many companies if their main commodity falls a lot in value.
The problem for gold as I see it, is that to get major inflation you need a big recovery in economic activity, and that removes the fear premium from gold.
Effectively the two factors work to balance each other to some extent at the moment. That's why when the markets have an up day at the moment gold also rises, despite traditionally being a 'safety' play. People see rising markets as predictive of economic recovery and therefore inflation, whereas falling markets that would sometimes in the past have helped gold, are now seen as deflationary and if anything negative for gold.
It's a weird kind of stalemate that has been reached, but no doubt at some point gold will start dancing to a new drumbeat. Maybe a war somewhere?
IGR Price at posting:
27.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held