Macro uncertainty has been a big driver of prices over the past few months, and traditionally, metals prices have moved higher with a weaker dollar. However, the dramatic scale of the price rises and falls is historic. Retail investors flooding into precious metals-backed ETFs have turbocharged the price moves — particularly for gold and silver, and to a lesser extent copper, according to Hamad Hussain at Capital Economics. “This is [the] recent money which came into the market the last few months, but by nature is volatile,” said James Steel of HSBC.