After gaining nearly 65% in 2025 – outperforming every major commodity except silver and the PGMs and crushing most other assets – many industry experts see further gains for gold prices in the coming year, while the overwhelming majority of retail traders see the yellow metal setting fresh record highs above $5,000 per ounce in 2026.  Gold began last year on somewhat shaky footing. The gold price had already risen to the very edge of $2,800 per ounce in late October of 2024, but the election of Donald Trump to his second term ignited a rally in risk assets, driving gold all the way back down to the low $2,500s by mid-November.  Spot gold kicked off 2025 trading at $2,622 per ounce, and the early part of the year saw the yellow metal steadily clawing back its November losses. Gold began February trading back above $2,800, before topping out just above $2,950 on the 25th. March opened with the yellow metal trading nearly $100 below its February high, but it wasted a little time making up lost ground. By March 13th spot gold had reached $2,990 per ounce, and in the first days of April, it set a new all-time high above $3,166 per ounce.  This time, it was the announcement of global trade tariffs on Trump's 'Liberation Day' that stalled gold's momentum – though not for long. While spot gold fell all the way back to $2,955 per ounce by April 7th, only two days later it set a fresh all-time high above $3,175, and by April 22nd the new high was $3,500 per ounce. Gold then entered its first period of sustained consolidation in 2025, with the yellow metal trading between $3,435 and $3,120 through May, June, July and August.  September 1st saw gold break decisively out of consolidation to set a fresh all-time high of $3,540 per ounce, and September through mid-October was a period of precipitous growth for the yellow metal as rate cut optimism combined with positive market sentiment to reignite the precious metal's momentum. But on October 20th, gold stalled once again, one day after setting a new all-time high of $4,381.44. This time, gold prices experienced one of their sharpest single-day drops on record, with spot gold hitting a low of $4,080 per ounce after trading as high as $4,375 earlier in the day. By October 27th, gold had bottomed out at $3,886 per ounce, and November began on a positive note with the yellow metal once again breaking above $4,000 per ounce. The price ceiling was now capped at $4,200, however, and it would take until December 10th before spot prices broke decisively through that level. After claiming $4,300 and taking a few days to consolidate, gold saw its final big push of 2025, breaking through $4,400 to a high of $4,449 on December 21st, and ultimately topping out at the new all-time high of $4,550 on Christmas Eve. When markets reopened on the 28th, gold saw another sharp sell-off, this time losing $240 in a single session to hit a low of $4,302 per ounce. And while gold would fall as low as $4,274 per ounce in the final days of trading, the $4,300 level would prove a firm foundation for the yellow metal to close out its year.The Kitco News Annual Gold Survey showed very strong belief in the yellow metal’s bullish potential on the part of retail traders, while the big banks and industry experts also expect continued gains from gold prices on balance in 2026. 475 retail investors participated in the Kitco News Annual Gold Survey, with a strong majority of Main Street predicting the yellow metal will set a new all-time high as it trades above $5,000 per ounce in 2025, while only one in 10 saw it dipping back below $4,000. 138 retail traders, representing 29% of total responses, expect gold to trade above $6,000 per ounce level next year, with the current all-time high above $4,550 set on December 26, 2025. The largest proportion of Main Street, 42%, or 197 investors, predicted gold prices will trade between $5,000 and $6,000 in 2025, while 19%, or 92 participants, expect gold to top out somewhere within its current range between $4,000 and $5,000. The remaining 49 retail traders, representing 10% of the total, think gold prices will drop back into the $3,000 to $4,000 per ounce range seen in spring through early fall of 2025.Wall Street banks have shown themselves bullish on 2026 even after two years of standout performances, but none project a repeat of the percentage gains seen in 2025. Goldman Sachs sees gold as the best bet in the entire commodities complex for 2026, and if private investors join central banks in their diversification, the price could well exceed its $4,900 per ounce base case. Of all the commodities they reviewed, Goldman Sachs is most bullish on gold – and central bank demand is a big reason why.  “We expect central bank gold buying to remain strong in 2026, averaging 70 tonnes per month (close to its 66 tonnes 12-month average, but 4 times above the 17 tonnes pre-2022 monthly average), and contribute about 14pp to our predicted price increase by Dec 26 for three reasons,” they said. “First, the freezing of Russia’s reserves in 2022 was a sea change in how EM reserve managers perceive geopolitical risks. Second, the estimated gold reserve share of EM central banks such as the PBoC remains relatively low vs. global peers (Exhibit 1, left panel), especially given China’s ambition to internationalize the RMB. Third, surveys show record high central bank gold appetite.” The analysts also see upside risk to their gold price forecast due to a further broadening of this diversification to private investors - a trend that has already resulted in competition for bullion between investors and central banks, and which has contributed to the multi-year bull market. “Gold ETFs account for just 0.17% of US private financial portfolios, 6 basis points below its 2012 peak,” they noted. “We estimate that every 1bp increase in the gold share of US financial portfolios—driven by incremental investor purchases rather than price appreciation—raises the gold price by 1.4%.” Goldman Sachs expects the gold price to pull back to the low $4,200s in the first quarter of 2026, and rising back to current levels above $4,400 per ounce in Q2, before setting a new all-time high near $4,630 by the third quarter, and rising as high as $4,900 by the end of Q4. J.P. Morgan’s 2026 outlook calls for gold’s bull market to continue as the key drivers remain strong, while new demand from Chinese insurance giants and the crypto community could help the yellow metal break above $5,055 by year-end. “While this rally in gold has not, and will not, be linear, we believe the trends driving this rebasing higher in gold prices are not exhausted,” said Natasha Kaneva, head of Global Commodities Strategy at J.P. Morgan. “The long-term trend of official reserve and investor diversification into gold has further to run. We expect gold demand to push prices toward $5,000/oz by year-end 2026.” The bank’s price forecasts are based on strong ongoing investor demand, along with continued central bank demand, which they project to average 585 tonnes per quarter in 2026. J.P. Morgan also sees further potential for gold’s ownership pool to grow next year, with Chinese insurance companies and the crypto industry potential sources of new demand. “While precisely timing the catalysts and inflows that will push prices higher remains difficult, we continue to have strong conviction that gold demand will have enough firepower to continue to push prices toward $5,000/oz in 2026,” said Gregory Shearer, head of Base and Precious Metals Strategy at J.P. Morgan. “If anything, we think our investor demand assumptions are potentially on the conservative side. We have laid out a scenario where if diversification of just 0.5% of foreign U.S. asset holdings into gold took place, it would be enough new demand to drive prices to $6,000/oz.” “With gold mine supply relatively inelastic and slow to respond to these higher prices and demand expected to remain robust, risk continues to skew toward reaching this multi-year target much quicker than expected,” Shearer added. J.P. Morgan Global Research is forecasting the gold price to average $5,055 per ounce by the final quarter of 2026, and they see the yellow metal reaching $5,400 by the end of 2027.