This Is What the Dubai Gold Market Looks Like
One of the perks of my job is that I get to travel around the world and see how gold markets look on the ground level. This time, I decided to go to Dubai and visit the famous Dubai Gold Souk, or Dubai gold market.
Dubai has been on my “places to go list” for a while. This is mainly because I was told several times, “You gotta go to Dubai to see their gold market. It’s something you won’t see anywhere else in the world.”
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When you are at the entrance of the gold souk, you don’t really see anything.
Once you enter, it hits you. You go, “Woah, is this actually all real?”
Mind you; the time I went to the gold souk, it wasn’t very busy. It’s summer in Dubai, and the temperature that day was around 45°C or 113°F. Usually in Dubai, outdoor markets aren’t busy in the daytime. I was told by the locals that this place really comes to life at night.
Credit: Moe Zulfiqar
Once inside, through the entrance, it feels as if there’s gold everywhere. You look to the right, you literally see dresses made of gold.
Yes, what you see in the picture is gold, not mixed with any other mineral. I went in and asked, and the shopkeeper said it was pure 24 karat gold (100% gold). The shop was packed with this sort of jewelry. Oh, and there were interested buyers looking around inside.
You look to the left and it may be a slightly different view, but there’s still gold everywhere. You see bangles and chains made of gold. Again, they were all made of pure gold, and there were buyers.
Credit: Moe Zulfiqar
Dear reader, I will say one thing; the pictures really don’t do it justice. The Dubai Gold Souk is simply phenomenal. For me, it was definitely an eye-opening experience. I truly now understand what the hype was all about.
What Did I Learn?
First of all, know that the Dubai Gold Souk is just one of the well-known gold markets in the city. It’s where the tourists go. In Dubai and other parts of the United Arab Emirates, there are several other gold markets. I also went to another one nearby. I visited that market at night, and it was definitely much busier.
Also, it gave me a good idea about demand. Gold may be hated by the big investment houses here in North America, but I saw many buyers in the shops in Dubai, and that tells me there’s still a lot of demand for the yellow precious metal. Those who are buying don’t really care about the prices; they just want the precious metal.
Lastly, gold is global. It’s consumed everywhere in the world. Too often, investors get the idea that it’s only held in safes at central banks or in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
I will end this with a story.
I took a taxi to the Dubai Gold Souk from my hotel. While talking to the taxi driver about the Gold Souk and why people buy gold, he said something very interesting. I already sensed it, but I hadn’t put it in these words. This is what he said (and I am paraphrasing).
“You know why people buy gold? Because you can take gold anywhere in the world, and it will be recognized. Even in the remotest part of the world, people know what gold looks like. They may not know what the U.S. dollar looks like, but gold, they will at least recognize the color of it. It’s money.”
