Terms of use

1. What this is

The Gold Barometer publishes one number a day, from 0 to 100, describing gold buying conditions. The number comes from seven measurements, each compared with its own history back to 1971, then blended in fixed proportions that do not change day to day. The recipe is published in full on the method page and has not changed since version 1.0.

It is a measuring instrument. It reads conditions the way a barometer reads air pressure: it tells you what things look like now, and what has usually followed conditions like these. That is the whole of what it does.

2. What this is not

It is not financial advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or avoid gold or anything else. We do not know your age, your income, your debts, your other savings or your plans, and advice that ignores those is not advice.

It is not a forecast. The score says nothing about what the price will do tomorrow, next month or next year. A low reading is not a warning that the price will fall. A high reading is not a promise that it will rise.

It is not a dealer, a broker or an adviser. We do not sell gold, hold it for anyone, or take a commission on anyone else selling it. We are not registered with any financial regulator, because we do not carry out any regulated activity.

It is not personal. The same number is published to everyone. It is never adjusted for a reader, and there is no version of it that knows anything about you.

3. The limits of the measurement

These are worth knowing before you use the number, not after.

• The history is rebuilt, not lived. This instrument was built in 2026. Every reading before then was reconstructed month by month, using only figures published by that date. Using only what was known on each date keeps hindsight out of the method. It is still not the same as having measured at the time.
• Fifty-five years is fewer stories than it sounds. The record holds a few hundred months. But five-year results measured from nearby months share most of the same days, so they are not separate tests. Gold has been through only a handful of truly separate episodes since 1971.
• Relationships break. One of the seven measurements stopped tracking gold between 2022 and 2024. We kept it, said so, and published the numbers on the break rather than quietly dropping it.
• The dealer basket is partial. Retail premiums are collected only from sellers whose terms allow it and whose pages open freely. The largest United States sellers are not in it. Day-to-day movement is what matters there, not the exact level. The full disclosure is on the provenance page.
• Sources go quiet. When a source has not updated within its published age limit, that part drops out for the day and the others share its weight. The page always says how many parts were used.
• The market is United States retail. Prices, premiums and the dollar are read from a US point of view. A buyer elsewhere pays in another currency and faces different sellers, taxes and rules.

4. Using the numbers

You may reuse the daily scores and the images built from them, including in articles, videos and on your own site, with a credit to The Gold Barometer. The widget is free, needs no account, and may be embedded anywhere. Details and downloads are on the press page and the data page.

What you may not do is present the number as something it is not: as advice, as a forecast, as a joint product of your brand and ours, or as an endorsement of a product or a seller. You may not alter a reading and still call it ours.

5. Availability and mistakes

The site is published as it is, with no promise that it will be available, uninterrupted or free of error. Sources can be late, wrong, or revised after we have used them. When a published reading turns out to be wrong we correct it and log the correction with its date, on the corrections page. We do not edit a number silently.

To the fullest extent the law allows, we accept no liability for any loss arising from a decision taken on the basis of anything published here. The decision to buy or sell is yours alone, and its consequences are yours alone. The law never lets terms excuse death, personal injury or fraud. Nothing here tries to.

6. Emails

If you sign up, you get a message when the reading moves into a new zone, and nothing else. You can leave at any time using the link in any message. We do not sell or share the list.

7. Changes to these terms

If we change these terms we will say so here with the date. The method has its own version number, shown on every page, and its changes are logged separately on the method page.

8. Which law applies

This site is published from France by the operator named on the legal notice, and French law applies to these terms. If you are a consumer, this does not take away the protections of the law of the country where you live.

9. Reaching a human

Write to hello@thegoldbarometer.com. Questions about the method, the data and mistakes in it are all welcome, and a report of an error is the most useful message you can send.

These terms were last changed on August 25, 2026.