Gold’s Spectacular Three-Year Rally Is Breaking All the Records

Gold’s ascent through $4,000 an ounce is yet another milestone in a three-year bull run that has defied die-hard skeptics and broken analytical models that have reliably predicted its rises and falls for decades.

Here, in five charts, is the story of how bullion shook off its reputation as a barbarous relic and muscled its way back toward the center of the global monetary system.