follow the leader
Robinhood has long warned about the regulatory risks posed by platforms that allow users to monitor and copy the trades of successful traders, and appears to have decided that if it can’t beat them (and by extension, they beat regulators), it might as well join them.
Join IG, CMC and Robinhood at the leading trade industry event in London!
The move is aimed at capitalizing on the growing influence of “finfluencers”, with research suggesting that a large proportion of US-based traders now trade based on information from social media.
Copy trading is not new, but Robinhood has two key factors in its favor. The first is scale. Recent estimates suggest that there are around 25 million active traders, so it’s easy to see how trading volumes will increase if feedback from the first group of traders is positive.
Then there’s the validation process. Robinhood’s copy trading system confirms trades in real time, allowing users to see exactly when and how positions are opened and closed, as well as monitor other traders and track trades published by politicians and hedge funds.
Introducing Robinhood Social. I will come again next year.
Show off your recent gains, discuss strategies, follow your favorite traders, and make market moves in real-time. #RobinhoodPresents https://t.co/cLhiCw7bpH pic.twitter.com/LYaLgkcuuM
— Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) September 10, 2025
All traders on Robinhood Social must verify their identity and prove that the portfolios and positions they claim are legitimate.
Robinhood wants to emphasize that when the service launches in the U.S. early next year, users will have to choose to copy trades instead of automatically executing them. This is an important distinction, as the company does not provide investment advice and is hoping to satisfy regulators to avoid falling under the protection of the Investment Advisers Act.
Supporting manual rather than automatic replication of trades should keep the company firmly in the realm of brokers from a regulatory perspective, but it still needs to verify the stated performance of high-performing traders and include plenty of warnings about risk factors.
The move also raises concerns that inexperienced traders will follow the strategies of those who happen to be working well at the time, without considering how long that approach has been used or when to change course. As the well-known disclaimer states, “past performance is not indicative of future results.”
Everything that shines…
The recent surge in gold prices shows no signs of slowing down. As I write this column, the precious metal has broken above $4,100 an ounce for the first time on the back of geopolitical and economic concerns, aggressive purchases by central banks, and the prospect of further U.S. interest rate cuts.
Bank of America is just one major financial institution predicting that an ounce of gold will be worth at least $5,000 by the end of next year, and this increase in value coincides with increased interest in exploration as aspiring miners pick up shovels and start digging for fossils.
Read more updates on gold prices: Bank of America’s Gold Price Forecast Eyes $5,000 Among New Records Today
Precious metals analysts at Deutsche Bank Research expect average values to be more modest in 2026, but say the current environment is still very conducive to further upside, outweighing the possibility of a correction.
According to Michael Hsueh, while the weaker US dollar creates a strong tailwind for gold, lower than expected supply levels of recycled gold are contributing to a tight market, further increasing the rationale for price increases. Flows into gold ETFs remain strong and there are no signs that central banks will significantly scale back their purchasing programs in the near future.
(#Highlighted link#)
The World Gold Council has an interesting take on whether the recent price increase signals a continuation of the trend or the beginning of a reversal.
As we pointed out when gold crossed $3,000 per ounce, round number milestones carry more psychological and technical weight than fundamental meaning. And it’s not just gold’s performance in a single year, but the length and underlying dynamics of the bull market that should be noted. For example, recent price movements in gold remain below the average duration and magnitude of historical bullish price movements.
WATCH: Gold prices continue to soar to record highs, rising 56% this year. What’s new is that demand is being driven by retail investors buying gold ETFs pic.twitter.com/BIXaoSiNdR
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) October 14, 2025
A new study by BeCoin market analyst Saquib Iqbal provides some interesting insights into attitudes towards gold as a safe-haven asset. His research found a nearly even split between those who think Bitcoin offers more upside potential than gold and those who still think the latter is a safer hedge, suggesting investors may be rewiring their definition of safety and trading their centuries-old faith in gold for the narrative momentum of digital scarcity.
Are the bonds wavering, or are they just being disturbed?
Recently, an article about the evolution of the government bond market caught my attention. Because the former is seen as a natural hedge against the latter, we set out to determine where bonds stand in relation to U.S. stocks, noting that bonds performed this function very efficiently during periods of low and stable inflation. However, it is a different story when the inflation rate increases.
Independent macro strategist Tom Bradshaw agrees that bond overvaluation is significantly lower than in 2020 and that a US recession is likely to cause a beneficial deflationary shock. However, he cautions that they remain overvalued and are unlikely to offer significant wealth generation opportunities in the coming years.
Interestingly, he said he was focused on gold and silver, which is consistent with research conducted by Royal London Asset Management that mapped financial market movements during US Federal Reserve easing cycles since the 1980s.
The firm found that the bonds have generated virtually no income since September 2024, when the price of gold rose by half. The firm’s head of multi-asset said equities were performing roughly at levels expected in a rate-cutting cycle, but bonds were suffering capital losses from rising yields.
This is not just a US phenomenon. Gold also significantly outperformed the UK stock market in 2025.
A notable increase in allocations to gold by pension funds and other asset managers would provide another major boost to the market, given the modest gold holdings of many asset managers.
