MEASURED RESULT
The gold-price path after September 15, 2008.
Gold rose 3.30% in the first session, 15.83% after five sessions and 20.03% after 20 sessions, before returning to almost exactly its pre-event level by session 60.
- Maximum advance
- +20.63%
- Maximum drawdown
- -5.03%
- Study horizon
- 60 London PM sessions
PRICE COMPARISON
One baseline, four consistent windows.
Returns are measured from the last available London PM benchmark before the event to the specified number of subsequent benchmark sessions.
$775.00 per troy ounce
$869.00 per troy ounce
$900.50 per troy ounce
$749.00 per troy ounce
Baseline: $750.25 on September 12, 2008. Price source: LBMA Gold Price PM. GoldPriceNow calculations are rounded to two decimal places.
EVENT ANCHOR
Why this date starts the comparison.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008. The study uses the previous London PM benchmark on September 12 as its baseline.
Event source: Federal Reserve History: support for specific institutions.
INTERPRETATION
What the price path shows.
A historical return is an observation, not proof that the selected event caused every part of the move.
The strongest part of this study occurred during the first month. Gold reached a maximum advance of 20.63% above the September 12 benchmark inside the 60-session window.
The 60-session result was -0.17%, showing that a large crisis rally can be followed by a substantial retracement even while the broader financial emergency remains unresolved.
Lehman’s bankruptcy was one milestone inside a fast-moving systemic crisis. The measured path also overlaps with extraordinary policy actions, dollar moves, deleveraging and changes in investor liquidity needs.