Oil and gold contest update #5

This is the final update for the sixth semi-annual "Guess the Price of Oil and Gold" contest prior to a winner being announced next Thursday and it's certainly been an interesting week or two for crude oil. Just when it looked like we were headed back to the $60-$70 a barrel range, now it looks like prices are headed to $80 or more and this causes another overhaul of the top ten list with just a few trading days to go.
In a holiday-shortened week, the price of crude oil finished at $78.05 a barrel and gold closed on Thursday at $1,104 an ounce, putting the current prices just below the average contest guesses of $80 for oil and $1,144 for gold.

With guesses of $75 and $1,101, that's RP snuggled up next to the most recently added yellow diamond with oilcan, CS, Scepticus, and KC not far behind and, as shown below, any big move up or down for the gold price will negatively affect RP's chances from here on out.
RP moved up from third place over the last week and APB, last week's leader, dropped seven places while GW, in second place last week, fell out of the top ten completely.

All tolled, there are seven new names in the top ten, PR being the third holdover dropping from fourth place to the ninth spot.

The pair of guesses ventured by yours truly is dropping like a rock in the standings. From the first appearance in the top ten in more than a year at number 7 two weeks ago, it has been a steady decline to position 16 and now the 28th spot.

For full details about the contest, see this summary post from last month.

Recall that the winner will be receive a free one year subscription to Iacono Research where it's shaping up to be a respectable year, the model portfolio now up almost 17 percent.

Good luck to all!

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To learn more about investing in natural resources using commonly traded ETFs,
stocks, and mutual funds, see this description at Iacono Research.For subscription details, click here.