LAST month, one man did more for the price of gold in a day than most have managed to do in the last 13 years.
Mr George Soros, the Hungarian-born financier, started the first gold rush of the 1990s, and only the second since 1986, with a simple deal involving American gold mining shares worth $400 million. .
When the man from whom Mr Soros bought the mining stock, Sir James Goldsmith, immediately put his cash from the deal into gold options, while telling one journalist, ''I'm a colossal bull of gold'', then everyone was suddenly convinced that the precious metal was on the mend.
Does this mean that now is the time to buy? As usual, the investment camp is divided. But, as far as the Soros/Goldsmith deal is concerned, many analysts said it was part of a larger plan involving US bonds, and that Soros was probably no more confidentin gold than he was in Hongkong's chances of winning an Olympic gold medal.
And, besides, advice from experts is that if you follow the large players into a market two weeks after they get in, you are probably already too late.
The gold prospector's term ''a flash in the pan'' is an appropriate one in this case.