Gold Was Cut in Half Before It Soared
VRIC Media Jul 15, 2026
Summary
Deep corrections are normal inside long-term bull markets; gold's 1970s run saw at least five pullbacks steeper than 20%.
The 1974–76 shakeout cut gold in half before an eightfold rise, the clearest case of a deep pullback inside a bull run.
The guest treats these shakeouts as a reason to add conviction, using past asset-class cycles to frame today's pullbacks.
Matthew Piepenburg's takeaways
- Top takeaway The guest argues that secular bull markets in any asset class always contain shakeouts, and that recognising this pattern keeps him calm and adds to his conviction rather than undermining it.
- His reference case for that pattern is the 1970s stagflation decade: gold moved from $35 to $850 and still recorded at least five corrections of more than 20% along the way.
- He singles out the 1974-1976 shakeout, which cut gold in half halfway through that run, as the most severe example of a correction inside a secular bull market.
- He notes gold went up roughly eight times after being halved, using that rebound to argue that outsized drawdowns can precede further gains rather than signal the end of the trend.