Gold demand hits record highs

Les compres d’or dels bancs centrals es disparen fins a una xifra rècord de quasi 400 tones en el tercer trimestre de 2022. Una tendència a l’alça reflectida pel sector de la joieria i la demanda de lingots i monedes d’or per part dels consumidors. 

Segons informa el Consell Mundial de l’Or (WGC, per les seves sigles en anglès) en un estudi publicat l’1 de novembre, el tercer trimestre de l’any els bancs centrals van comprar un total de 400 tones d’or. Aquesta xifra gairebé dobla l’anterior rècord aconseguit el 2018, quan es registrava un volum de compres de 241 tones.

L’entitat també assenyala que això suposa el vuitè trimestre consecutiu de compres netes d’or per part dels bancs centrals, elevant el total interanual des de que va començar el 2022 fins a 673 tones, quatre vegades més que les dades reflectides en el mateix període del 2021, i el volum més alt des de 1967.

Els bancs centrals de països com Turquia, Uzbekistan, Qatar i la India, són alguns dels que més or van comprar en el tercer trimestre de 2022, segons l’informe del WGC, però s’ha de tenir en compte que grans compradors d’or, com la Xina o Rússia, no publiquen dades de les seves reserves i compres de metalls preciosos.

De la mateixa manera, l’elevada inflació va esperonar la demanda de lingots i monedes d’or per part d’inversors detallistes, fins a uns màxims que no s’havien vist en sis trimestres. En aquest sentit, destaca la Xina, on la compra de lingots i monedes gairebé es va duplicar fins a les 70 tones respecte al trimestre anterior.

Però el preu segueix baix. Per què?

Des de principi d’any, el preu de l’or ha caigut al voltant d’un 6%, assolint mínims no gaire distants dels que es van veure al començament de la crisi sanitària el 2020, abans que es disparés el seu valor a finals d’aquell mateix any. De fet, el preu de l’or no s’ha recuperat gaire després de perdre un 20% del seu valor des del pic assolit el mes de març passat, tot i que la setmana passada va pujar un 6,25%, un 5,85% respecte al mes anterior.

Aquesta aparent incongruència, donat l’increment de demanda, té vàries possibles explicacions. Per una banda, la pujada dels tipus d’interès als Estats Units i Europa, així com la fortalesa del dòlar, i dels bons governamentals, que generen un major rendiment per als inversors i també són considerats un valor refugi, expliquen part de la caiguda del preu de l’or.

Per altra banda, molts inversors financers van vendre accions en ETF recoltzades per or, a mesura que pujaven les taxes d’interessos. La subseqüent venda de lingots d’or per part dels ETF va provocar una caiguda del preu de l’or físic de fins al 8% en el tercer trimestre, a la vegada que estimulava la demanda de l’or de joieria. 

Tot i això, la majoria d’analistes financers coincideixen en pronosticar que el preu de l’or tornarà a pujar significativament el 2023, després de la possible caiguda del valor del dòlar i dels rendiments dels bons del tresor, continuant la tèndencia prevalent en els últims cinc anys, en els que l’or ha vist augmentat el seu valor en un 37%.

Si vols descobrir la millor opció per protegir els teus estalvis, entra a Preciosos 11Onze. T’ajudarem a comprar al millor preu el valor refugi per excel·lència: l’or físic.

In the last year, negative news has been accumulating in the cryptoasset market. After the bankruptcy of crypto-asset platform FTX and the loss of almost three quarters of the value of bitcoin in a year, the future of cryptocurrencies seems more in doubt than ever.

The Super Bowl is the world’s most expensive advertising showcase. In its last edition, held in February, nearly 7 million dollars were paid for a 30-second advert, something within the reach of very few companies. One of them was FTX, the world’s third-largest crypto asset platform at the time. Its ad compared cryptocurrencies to some of mankind’s greatest inventions, presented the company as “a safe and easy way” to access this market and ridiculed the sceptics.

Just a few months later, FTX filed for bankruptcy and threatens to leave more than a million people around the world without their money. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire collapsed in just one week.

Following the sudden drop in the price of the FTX token in early November, Bankman-Fried requested a bailout from Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange platform. Although Binance initially agreed to help him, a few hours later it backed out, citing mismanagement of funds and other irregularities. On 11 November, FTX had no choice but to announce in a tweet the filing for bankruptcy proceedings and the resignation of Sam Bankman-Fried as CEO.

Possible contagion

As with many cryptocurrency companies, FTX’s house of cards was built on expectations of revaluation. When investor confidence crumbles, nothing can stop a catastrophic spiral that eventually takes down the company, which in FTX’s case had reached a valuation of $32 billion at the beginning of the year.

Given its size, the aftershocks of FTX’s collapse are expected to be prolonged and devastating. The first victim could be the Crypto.com platform, which in recent months had already made massive layoffs due to the turbulent situation in the crypto-asset market. Its token Cronos has lost more than half of its value in less than a week.

Sources indicate that the platform deposited more than $1 billion in FTX, of which it was only able to recover about $100 million. However, Crypto.com’s CEO has denied this on Twitter, claiming that its exposure to FTX is less than $10 million. The truth is that his message has failed to calm the markets, which continue to fear the collapse of this platform.

The risk of a new “crypto-winter”.

The collapse of FTX and the crisis at Crypto.com come against a backdrop of doubts about the future of cryptocurrencies. After reaching a valuation of 58,358 euros in November 2021, the successive falls of what became known as the “crypto-winter” and the uncertainty of the last few days have pushed bitcoin below 16,000 euros, which means it has lost almost three-quarters of its value in a year.

As we explained in the article “Cryptocurrencies, a highly volatile asset”, bitcoin is no exception. Volatility has also affected other cryptocurrencies in recent months. For example, Ether lost two-thirds of its value between April and June, falling from more than €3,000 to less than €1,000, before rising back above €1,900 in mid-August and dropping below €1,200 in recent days.

Terra Luna, the most talked-about case until the FTX debacle, went from being worth more than 80 euros at the beginning of May to being practically worthless in little more than a week. And yet it was a ‘stablecoin’, i.e. a cryptocurrency whose value is linked to that of another currency, commodity or financial instrument, which should provide more stability.

Although crypto-assets continue to have many enthusiasts, more and more portfolio managers assume that the structure of this market is too risky and the losses are too great. The notion of bitcoin as the new digital gold, a safe haven in turbulent times, has faded. As a result, many institutional investors are turning their backs on crypto-assets to increase their participation in theoretically safer markets, such as precious metals.

In any case, the current crisis in the cryptocurrency market reminds us of the importance of having a diversified portfolio to protect us from sharp falls in the valuation of any of our assets.

Session on cryptoeconomics

If you want to learn more about the crypto-assets market, on 22 November at La Plaça we will be hosting Susana Rodríguez Urgel, founder of The Digital Advisory Board, who will be speaking live about cryptoeconomics in the second chapter of “Que no faltin!” series.

This expert in cryptography and one of those responsible for “the commercial and digital transformation of Telefónica” more than a decade ago, as James Sène, president of 11Onze, pointed out, promises a provocative session open to debate. If you are interested in participating live to raise your doubts and questions, you can write to [email protected].

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

Digital currencies are becoming more common, but it is still quite unknown what they are and how they work. Let’s try to clarify, in a simple way and in five points, their fundamental characteristics.

A little history of cryptocurrencies

We have to go back to the early eighties of the last century to find the first steps in the idea of a virtual currency protected by cryptography by the hands of David Chaum: the creation of eCash. The final push came in 2008, when the document that developed Bitcoin was published by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto.

With Bitcoin, the first units of which were put into circulation on January 3, 2009, it is considered that cryptocurrencies were definitely born. Its creators described it as “a peer-to-peer cash system”, with no regulation or control by governments or institutions.

How do cryptocurrencies work?

Encryption, for security reasons, is based on blockchain technology, a data storage structure following algorithms, almost impossible to counterfeit, open to all users, that works like an electronic register book of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

In this way a digital currency is created without physical form, but the ownership, the integrity of the transactions, and the control of the creation of new units can be assured. This gives cryptocurrencies the guarantee to be used as money for everyone: to trade, to buy, or to save them.

Legal tender money is under the guarantee of the states, their governments, and the financial institutions, which create and regulate it. This is the basis of the trust that makes citizens use them, as well as making them essential. Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, do not depend on or are regulated by any administration. In this way, their value is born of the trust placed in them by their users, of the law of supply and demand.

However, cryptocurrencies seek to achieve this necessary trust with the user, for example, by replicating the essential characteristics of money: being fungible or exchangeable; being divisible into units; being storable and transportable; and having a controlled and limited flow of creation or supply.

The market that is being created by their users, then, is what marks their acceptance and, in return, their value. What we have known so far is that, from the beginning, when only a few experts or technology enthusiasts acquired them, the interest in having cryptocurrencies has experienced a very high growth, to the point of exchanging a Bitcoin for €40,000.

What are cryptocurrencies for?

As you have deduced, investment has become one of the great motivations for owning cryptocurrencies. Specialised exchanges that work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, buying and selling them non-stop, have even been created. Investors are attracted to these markets by the expectation of profits. But you have to be careful and be willing to accept the risk of high volatility of cryptocurrencies: their price rises and falls by thousands of euros very easily.

Cryptocurrencies can also be used to make purchases, as long as the seller accepts this means of payment. It is not yet possible to say that it is a widespread option, but more and more companies are allowing it and opening gateways to be paid for services or products in cryptocurrencies. Fast payments, in fact, are another of the uses and benefits of digital currencies, as transfers around the world are immediate.

Buying and saving cryptocurrencies

We have already said that investing in cryptocurrencies is currently highly speculative and risky. The most profitable ones, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, are also considered the highest risk. However, anyone can have them if they buy them, accept them for a fee, or even create or decrypt new ones.

The most common is that the latter option, creation or decryption, is left in the hands of large IT teams dedicated to it, often controlled by economic groups, in what is known as mining cryptocurrencies: generating them by deciphering the algorithm or mathematical problem under which they hide.

Individuals can access them more easily through purchase platforms or financial intermediaries, as well as from ATMs that have been created exclusively to offer and exchange cryptocurrencies, and that are already present in commercial areas, for example. There are also digital applications such as Coinbase or Binance.

Once purchased, they are assigned a unique and personal password, which should be kept in a safe place and not lost, because it is all the guarantee you have of the possession of the cryptocurrencies. This is why there are digital wallets, a software or application where it is possible to store cryptocurrencies.

The regulation of cryptocurrencies

In 2015, the European Union (EU) established the same validity of the Euro for Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, in response to the increase of its presence and related investments. 

However, let’s remember that cryptocurrencies are born free from the regulation and control of administrations and that, consequently, they see them with some reluctance and consider them as a very speculative and unsuitable asset, if not for the expert investor. When you decide to buy cryptocurrencies, you must know that there are no traditional regulation and supervision services that guarantee their custody.

Finally, remember that the Spanish State obliges to include in the income tax return any expenses or income derived from transactions of purchase and sale with cryptocurrencies. In addition, in October 2020 the Draft Law on Measures to Prevent and Fight Tax Fraud was published, introducing the obligation to provide information on the balances and holders of cryptocurrencies and purchase transactions, collections, payments, and transfers, among other transactions.

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Given the exceptional situation we find ourselves in, more and more investors are trying to buy gold to protect their savings from instability and inflation. But does this mean that we end up keeping gold bars at home? Are there alternatives to physical gold? 11Onze broker Amadeu Vilaginés gives us an overview.

Historically, gold has played a very important role in the economies of many nations. Although it is no longer a primary form of currency, buying gold and other precious metals remains a sound long-term investment. You may have heard of people buying gold bars and hiding them under the bed or in a safe. But beyond this cinematic image, is it worth keeping gold at home?

“These fears should not be an impediment, as there are now many companies that store and guard the gold of private individuals,” Vilaginés says. Their vaults, which are much more modern and secure than the safes we may have at home, ensure better protection. “We can also buy gold coins instead of bars, which are easier to hide. And above all, it is important not to keep all the gold in one place,” Agent 11Onze says.

Similarities and differences

If you don’t feel like buying physical gold, there are alternatives. “Physical gold is tangible, while digital gold is a financial asset that reflects the price of gold,” Vilaginés sums up. Normally, he says, it is an ETF, i.e. an exchange-traded fund: if the price of gold goes up, then the value of the ETF goes up, and vice versa.

“Essentially, it’s the same for physical gold as it is for digital gold. In other words, I can buy a bar of gold in 2020 and, if it has risen in price in 2022, I can sell it and make a capital gain. Conversely, I could have bought a stake in an ETF linked to the price of gold in 2020 and then sold it in 2022 and made a profit,” he argues.

So what are the differences between physical and digital gold? “For a start, ownership. When you buy physical gold, you own the metal, whereas when you invest in an ETF what you have is a right or an option,” he says. In addition, the value of gold is intrinsic and cannot suspend payments, whereas financial assets can. 

There is also the problem of storage and liquidity. “Digital gold doesn’t need any storage and, once we decide to sell it, it’s as easy as pressing a button. The downside of physical gold is that it can present more liquidity difficulties than the financial asset, since you have to find a buyer for your bullion and, in addition, we will have to take into account the storage costs,” Vilaginés explains. Watch the video below to find out all about physical and digital gold.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

The Forex or Foreign Exchange market is a global and decentralised market in which currencies are traded. Núria Rambla, CEO Executive Assistant at 11Onze, explains how the market that moves the largest volume of investments works.

Forex, from the union of the words Foreign and Exchange, is also known as FX or Foreign Exchange Market and is the largest financial market in the world. It is a global market for currency trading where the world’s major currencies can be traded 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday. But as Rambla points out, “we should not confuse the foreign exchange market with the stock market, they are different”.

It is a highly liquid market where many players and investors from all over the world operate, such as banks, financial institutions and companies that manage investment funds. Therefore, it represents a great opportunity for all types of investors, which is reflected in the volume of investment, “2.9 trillion dollars and 1.1 trillion euros are traded every day“, explains Rambla.

Trading with the exchange rate between two currencies

The aim of investors is to profit from the price difference between the different currencies listed on the market. It should be borne in mind that the value of a currency can vary depending on many factors. The current economic situation with runaway inflation can play a role in determining demand, but other circumstances can drive a currency’s value up or down.

Investors buy and sell currencies based on their expectation that a currency pair will move up or down from its initial value. In this sense, Rambla points out that the Forex market “allows us to agree on prices and hedge risks, known as options and futures”.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

Numerous reports and studies from institutions like the Mobile World Congress, l’Agència per la Competitivitat de l’Empresa (ACCIÓ) or the Fundación de Estudios de Economia Aplicada not only confirm that Catalans do something indeed, but that we do it quite well. So year after year Catalonia tops rankings on business’ innovation.

The report done by ACCIÓ is conclusive: “Catalonia leads in the number of innovative businesses in Spain, with 22% of the total. Catalonia leads in both product and business process innovation.” The above figures are not by accident but the result of a conscious and proactive support from both, industry as and the public administration, increasing growth by 10.7% from the previous three years as shown by the study.

Innovation that is always linked to investment in R&D, a key factor because one cannot understand one without the other, and here data also shows an increase of 2.4% in 2019 compared to the previous year, third year of continuous growth and the highest figure in the historical series although below the Spanish State (4.2%) and the European Union (4.5%).

There is no doubt that we Catalans have the talent, the science, the industrial fabric and the entrepreneurial spirit, but perhaps we lack a national strategy that knows how to coordinate academia with industry. We must be able to prevent the brain drain that we have worked so hard to train. And for that we need more funding.

Foreign investment and financing resources

According to data from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and the National Innovation Company (ENISA), 36% of Catalan small and medium-sized enterprises have received participative loans from the State, well above the Spanish average and at the top of the ranking by a considerable margin.

It should be noted that, by area of activity, SMEs in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector account for the majority of this financing. A business fabric that seems to be immune to the pandemic and continues to grow with employment figures that are the envy of the sector. 

This is confirmed by a study conducted by the economic studies office of the Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona and the Laboratorio de Transferencia de Análisis Cuantitativo Regional de la Universitat de Barcelona (AQR-Lab), which shows that the ICT sector employed 128,700 people in the third quarter of 2020, 19.1% more than in the same period of 2019 and an all-time high. 

In terms of foreign investment, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce confirms that Catalonia also leads in productive investment by asset value. These data are particularly significant because they are not based on quarterly or annual data prone to volatility, but on clean investment accumulated over periods of more than ten years and which, therefore, allow trends to be identified.

In short, all these reports, studies and analyses confirm that when it comes to innovation, it is not enough to do things, and do them well, but they must be accompanied by a vision of the country that supports them.

If you want your business to make a giant leap, use 11Onze Business. Our business and freelancer account is now available. Find out more!

Persistent economic uncertainty and unrelenting inflation have created a scenario where getting a return on our savings is no easy task. Against this backdrop of uncertainty, precious metals are considered a low-risk investment and gold the safe-haven asset par excellence. Carol Santacruz, 11Onze agent, explains it.

The inflation protection offered by precious metals is based on their intrinsic value, which carries no credit risk and cannot be inflated. A unique feature that makes them particularly attractive for diversifying our investments in times of crisis.

Also, gold’s tendency to rise in value when there is uncertainty in the markets explains the continuous increase in its price over the last three years, and confirms it as the most popular safe-haven asset in the face of a possible new financial crisis in 2022.

In this video, agent Coral Santacruz explains the value of precious metals as an investment and what factors to take into account.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

What does it mean if a piece of gold is 18 carats or 24 carats? Traditionally, goldsmiths have used carat as the unit for determining the purity of gold, but in the investment world, thousandths have become the standard for indicating the quality of this noble metal.

Gold, which corresponds to the chemical symbol “Au,” is the most ductile and malleable of the noble metals. So much so that, by stretching a single gram, we can make a wire up to 2 km long.

The fact that it belongs to the noble metal family gives it some very special characteristics, as Nuria Rambla, executive assistant at 11Onze, explains, since these metals “do not oxidise in air or water, are unalterable over time, do not combine easily with other substances and resist acids well.”

What we know as raw gold is found in nature in the form of grains or nuggets mixed with other materials. It is then “put through a chemical and high-temperature process” to obtain what we call “pure gold.”

Carats or thousandths?

The purity of gold can be established in carats or in thousandths. The first measure is the one that has traditionally been used in jewellery, while in the world of investment the thousandths has become the norm.

If we measure it in carats, pure gold has 24 carats. This means that, out of 24 parts, 24 are gold. However, 18-carat gold has 18 parts gold and 6 parts other metal. As pure gold is very soft, it is common for jewellers to lower the purity by making alloys with other metals to make their goldsmiths’ pieces harder and more consistent.

If we measure it in thousandths, pure gold has 1,000. In any case, as Nuria Rambla points out in the video, 999.9 is considered to be “pure gold.” In the investment world, this gold can be found in bars or bullion coins. The former can weigh “from 2 grams to 1 kg”. As for the coins, they are issued by mints, which must state “the weight and purity”.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

Is it safe to buy gold and why do investors choose to buy it? In times of economic instability, when the financial system and the global economy are faltering, buying gold makes more sense than any other asset. Sara Casals, from the 11Onze product team, explains why.

“Gold continues to be the safest bet for protecting our savings and even for making a profit,” Sara Casals says. This explains, according to the product team expert, why gold has represented a very important part of the strategic reserves of central banks for many years. “It must be made clear that when we talk about security in the purchase of gold, we are talking about physical gold, and not as an investment in digital funds or through funds or shares in the mining sector,” Casals clarifies.

Physical gold, he says, will always have value and will survive the passage of time. “Gold is a safe haven because of its ability to preserve wealth,” the product team member says. Therefore, when inflation is expected to rise, one of the preferred assets is gold, which is also highly liquid. Want to know more about it? Just watch the video below.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

84% of the country’s population resides in flats, versus 15.2% who do so in houses, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful space. In rural areas, as in the rest of Europe, single-family homes (68.1%) predominate compared to flats (31.9%) according to Idealista.

After suffering a pandemic, people look for and appreciate having a terrace, a balcony, bigger or smaller, but having the possibility to go out and be able to breathe.

If you want to live in Barcelona, you have many amenities, but statistically homes are usually smaller and with fewer outdoor areas to enjoy. 

In Catalonia there is a very high percentage of people who live in flats instead of houses.

Tips for turning your balcony into a magazine terrace:

• The first tip is to fix the floor. You can choose artificial grass, a wooden floor, or a white floor, which will give you more space. Grass can make you feel like you’re next to a pool, but be aware that you’ll need to do more thorough maintenance. A wooden floor is easy to install and also gives a lot of warmth. You can combine grass and wood, and even add white stones somewhere. I bet you can already imagine it. The most important thing is that, as the space is reduced, the cost will not be excessive.
• Once you have the floor ready, we will continue with railings. If there is nothing that gives you privacy, we recommend that you buy large wicker baskets and put some plants in them, so you avoid being seen from the street. They can also be aluminium or wooden pots. With the excuse of going out to water them, you can enjoy a nice break.
• Another alternative is to place bamboo or similar to cover or decorate, and you can install small lights to illuminate them at night.
• We continue with the table. In the market, you will find a myriad of small tables that can be folded. Some you can put on the wall and, when they are not used, you can fold them and, when it is time to go out and have a coffee, you can unfold them with a single gesture. Round, square, for corners… Depending on the space available, you will find the one that best suits you.
• The same will happen to you with chairs: there are foldable chairs, ideal for small spaces where they do not always have to be unfolded. Let’s make a stop: you can give a very personal touch here. Add some coloured pillows now that summer is coming, and you can change them from time to time. There are some very cheap ones; smooth ones are also a fantastic alternative and, if you are more daring, you can choose a more intense colour, even if it is single-coloured, which will create a very nice atmosphere.
• If you decide you don’t want a table or chairs, but your balcony is a quiet area instead, add a couple of armchairs or even a hanging hammock and a pillow, and you can enjoy a morning of reading or an evening with a glass of wine or cava.

Add a little colour and nature

Surely you’ve heard of them vertical gardens: if you have a blank wall, you can also put some white shelves and add some pots with small green flowers. There are many examples where you will find your inspiration, and they are very easy to install.

As we know, the details make the difference. Once you have made the most important changes mentioned in the previous points, add candles, chandeliers, small light strips, a small rug, a pouf…

And why not make a small urban garden? No matter how small, you can definitely add a pot with some aromatic plants such as basil, mint, parsley, rosemary… The smell when you go out will be so pleasant and, at the same time, you can enjoy the perfect natural seasoning for your salads.

Do not let the sun be a problem

In case of not having an awning (although they last for many years, this may not be the time to make this expense), you can find solutions such as awning fabrics that are fastened to the wall.

If your budget is small, don’t worry, you will surely find small shops near home with all these types of objects that we have mentioned. You can also find all these items in larger supermarkets.

After reading this article, you surely feel like making these changes and improving your terrace. Take advantage now that the good weather is coming and invite a couple of friends to enjoy it.

11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut on Android and Apple and join the revolution!