Copper to Gold Ratio Tracker Excel: Macro Indicator Dashboard for May 2026

Copper to gold ratio tracker Excel - if you searched for that, you want a live, refreshable sheet that prints the copper-to-gold ratio, compares it to the 10-year Treasury yield, and turns the resulting regime into an actual portfolio tilt. This guide ships exactly that template, walks the macro logic behind one of the most-watched cross-asset signals in fixed income, and shows you how to wire every cell to MarketXLS so the ratio recalculates whenever you open the workbook.

Before we dig into the macro story, here is the headline snapshot the dashboard is built around.

Copper to gold ratio vs 10-year yield: the May 2026 snapshot

The single data point that matters in May 2026 is the last row. The copper-to-gold ratio is sitting near a multi-decade low while the 10-year Treasury yield is north of 4.4 percent. That gap is the macro story the rest of this template is built to track.

What the copper to gold ratio tracker Excel template includes

The download is two files. The sample version contains pre-filled values captured on May 22, 2026 with the MarketXLS formula printed next to each data point so you can see exactly which function powers it. The template version is wired entirely to live MarketXLS formulas so the ratio, the 10-year yield, the moving averages, and the miner screener refresh on every Excel recalc.

Both files contain six worksheets:

• How To Use - tutorial that explains the macro logic, every input, and every formula
• Main Dashboard - copper, gold, the ratio, the 10-year yield, two moving averages each, a regime classifier, a divergence reading, and a suggested tilt
• Historical Reference - ten macro regimes from 2008 to today with the prevailing ratio level and yield, plus a live row at the bottom
• Mining Stocks - 12 large-cap miners (six copper, six gold or royalty) screened on price, valuation, quality, and analyst targets
• Portfolio Allocation - 11-line model that flips between risk-on, neutral, and risk-off weights based on the regime, sized from your portfolio input
• Macro Comparison - 12 cross-asset proxies (copper, gold, TLT, HYG, LQD, SPY, XLI, XLB, UUP) with 50 and 200-day SMAs, 30-day volatility, beta, and YTD

Download the templates:

• - Pre-filled with values from May 22, 2026 and the MarketXLS formula visible next to each cell
• - Live formulas, zero static data, refreshes on every workbook open

The rest of this guide explains why the copper-to-gold ratio is one of the cleanest macro indicators in bond markets, how to read the current divergence, how to build it in Excel with MarketXLS formulas, and how to wire the regime signal into a working asset allocation sleeve.

What is the copper to gold ratio, and why do bond managers watch it

The copper-to-gold ratio is what it sounds like: the price of copper divided by the price of gold. The idea is older than most macro indicators, but it became famous when DoubleLine's Jeffrey Gundlach posted side-by-side charts of the ratio and the 10-year Treasury yield on screens at industry conferences in 2014 and 2017. The two lines tracked each other closely. He argued that copper, as a globally traded industrial metal, captures real growth expectations, while gold captures fear, real-rates dynamics, and currency debasement. Subtract one from the other (or divide them) and you get a clean read on how investors are pricing growth versus safety.

The relationship works because bonds, copper, and gold are pricing similar underlying questions:

• Bond yields rise when investors expect faster growth and higher inflation, fall when they expect the opposite.
• Copper rises when manufacturers need more wire, more pipe, more transformers, more EV motors, and more grid infrastructure.
• Gold rises when investors lose confidence in fiat currency, real rates, or geopolitical stability.

When growth expectations firm, both copper and yields tend to climb. When growth wobbles, both copper and yields tend to fade while gold catches a bid. The ratio captures that triangulation in a single line.

It is not a perfect predictor. There have been long stretches where the relationship has decoupled, including the one we are living through right now. But it remains one of the cleanest single-variable cross-asset signals available, and the fact that it can be built in Excel from two ETF prices is what makes it template-friendly.

How the copper to gold ratio tracker Excel template calculates the ratio

Different desks use different inputs. Bond traders typically use front-month copper futures (HG) and front-month gold futures (GC). Commodity desks sometimes use spot copper in pounds and spot gold in ounces. This template uses two ETFs that trade in any brokerage account:

• CPER - the United States Copper Index Fund, which tracks a basket of front and second-month copper futures
• GLD - SPDR Gold Shares, which holds physical bullion in vaults

The ratio is:

Ratio = (Price of CPER) / (Price of GLD) * 100

The multiplier of 100 is cosmetic. The raw ratio is a small decimal (around 0.10 in May 2026), so most analysts multiply by 100 to get a more readable number around 10. The dashboard exposes the multiplier as an input cell so you can change it to match whatever convention your team uses.

The live MarketXLS formula in the Main Dashboard is:

=IFERROR((QM_Last("CPER") / QM_Last("GLD")) * $B$3, "")

Where $B$3 is the multiplier input. Two simple QM_Last calls, one division, one multiplication, one error trap. That is the entire signal. The reason this matters is that the same single line can be charted against the 10-year yield using a second TreasuryRate10Y("US10Y") call, and the gap between the two prints in real time.

Reading the signal: rising, falling, and divergence

The dashboard distills three readings into a regime label. Here is how to interpret each.

Rising ratio (RISK-ON)

When copper is rising faster than gold (or falling slower), the ratio climbs. That happens during reflation episodes, China stimulus pushes, and synchronized global growth. In 2009-2011 the ratio rallied from 1.5 to over 3.0 alongside emerging-market industrial demand. In 2020-2021 it doubled from the COVID lows as reopening rolled through. A rising ratio is normally accompanied by:

• Rising 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields
• Outperformance by cyclical sectors (industrials, materials, financials)
• Tightening credit spreads (HYG and LQD rallying)
• Underperformance by gold miners and long-duration bonds

In template terms, a rising ratio plotted above your Risk-On band (default 1.30 multiplied by the ratio scaler) tilts the Portfolio Allocation sheet toward copper exposure, materials sector ETFs, and away from TLT and cash.

Falling ratio (RISK-OFF)

The opposite holds. A falling ratio happens when gold is bid harder than copper, which is usually a sign that investors are pricing slower growth, currency debasement, or geopolitical stress. In 2009 Q1 the ratio collapsed to 2.2 during the GFC trough. In Q1 2020 it collapsed to 1.55 during the COVID crash. In May 2026 it sits near a multi-decade low of around 10 on the multiplied scale, just above 0.10 raw.

A falling ratio is normally accompanied by:

• Falling 10-year yields and steepening curve
• Outperformance by defensive sectors (utilities, staples, healthcare)
• Widening credit spreads
• Outperformance by gold miners and long-duration bonds

The template tilts to GLD, GDX, gold miners, TLT, and cash when the ratio prints below the Risk-Off band (default 0.95 times the scaler).

Divergence (the May 2026 story)

The most interesting setup is when the ratio and the 10-year yield disagree. That is what is happening right now. Yields are elevated near 4.45 percent while the ratio is compressed at multi-decade lows. The standard cross-asset model implies one of two outcomes:

1. Yields fall toward the ratio. Gold continues to outperform copper as growth slows, and bond investors capitulate on the "higher for longer" narrative. TLT and gold miners rally. This is the consensus dovish path heading into the June 17-18 FOMC.
2. Copper rallies toward the yield. Industrial demand surprises to the upside, the grid-build and AI data center thesis catches a second wind, and copper miners catch up. SPY and XLI lead, GLD pauses.

The template does not tell you which is right. What it does is print the divergence in basis points on the Main Dashboard so you can watch it close one way or the other.

Historical reference: where the ratio has been

The Historical Reference sheet ships ten macro regimes from 2008 through today. Three observations are worth pulling out before you study the table.

First, the ratio has spent most of the last twenty years between roughly 1.5 and 3.5 on the raw scale (150 to 350 on the multiplied scale). The current reading near 10 multiplied (or 0.10 raw) is at the very low end of that range. Compressions to this level have historically coincided with two kinds of regimes: severe risk-off shocks (2009 Q1, 2020 Q1) and structural gold-bull markets (2011 peak, 2020 peak).

Second, the ratio leads bond yields more often than it lags them. In 2018 Q4, the ratio rolled over six months before the 10-year topped. In 2020 Q1, the ratio bottomed two weeks before yields did. In 2022, the ratio bottomed roughly a quarter before yields topped. The lag is not deterministic, but the directional relationship tends to assert itself.

Third, the absolute level matters less than the rate of change. A ratio that is rising sharply from a low base is more important than a flat ratio at a high level. The Main Dashboard prints both the level and the percent change versus the 50-day and 200-day moving averages so you can watch both.

Building the copper to gold ratio tracker in Excel: the formulas

Every cell on every data sheet is a verified MarketXLS function. Here are the building blocks the template uses.

Live prices

=QM_Last("CPER")                         Real-time price for the copper ETF
=QM_Last("GLD")                          Real-time price for the gold ETF
=QM_Last("TLT")                          Long-duration Treasury bond ETF
=QM_Last("FCX")                          Freeport-McMoRan, copper bellwether

QM_Last returns the most recent QuoteMedia price for a symbol. It works for stocks, ETFs, and most index proxies. The Main Dashboard uses it for the copper and gold legs of the ratio.

Moving averages

=SimpleMovingAverage("CPER", 50)         50-day SMA for copper ETF
=SimpleMovingAverage("GLD", 200)         200-day SMA for gold ETF
=SimpleMovingAverage("CPER", 200)        200-day SMA for copper ETF

The dashboard divides one SMA by the other to compute a smoothed ratio, then compares the spot ratio to its own 50-day and 200-day averages. This gives you trend context: is the ratio above or below its longer-run average, and by how much.

Treasury yield

=TreasuryRate10Y("US10Y")                10-year US Treasury rate (decimal)
=TreasuryRate5Y("US5Y")                  5-year US Treasury rate
=TreasuryRate3M("US3M")                  3-month bill rate

The dashboard uses the 10-year rate directly. The 5-year and 3-month rates are available if you want to extend the model with a yield-curve overlay.

Mining stock screener fundamentals

=PERatio("FCX")                          Trailing P/E
=DividendYield("RIO")                    Trailing dividend yield
=ReturnOnEquity("NEM")                   Trailing return on equity
=TotalDebtToEquity("SCCO")               Debt-to-equity
=MarketCapitalization("AEM")             Market cap in dollars
=QuarterlyRevenueGrowthYOY("BHP")        Year-over-year quarterly revenue growth
=QuarterlyEarningsGrowthYOY("KGC")       Year-over-year quarterly EPS growth
=Beta("WPM")                             Beta vs S&P 500
=OneYrTargetPrice("GOLD")                Consensus 1-year price target

These power the 12-stock miner screener. The same set of fundamentals appears on the Macro Comparison sheet for the cross-asset proxies.

Volatility

=StockVolatilityThirtyDays("CPER")       Trailing 30-day volatility
=StandardDeviationOnClosePrice("GLD",60) Custom-period standard deviation

Volatility is part of the Macro Comparison sheet so you can see whether copper is more volatile than gold (it usually is) and whether the relationship has shifted lately.

The full list of every function the template uses prints at the bottom of each sheet under a "MarketXLS Functions Used in This Sheet" heading.

The mining stock screener: six copper, six gold

The Mining Stocks sheet covers 12 large-cap names split into two groups.

Copper-leveraged miners:

• FCX (Freeport-McMoRan) - the largest pure-play US copper producer. High beta to copper price.
• SCCO (Southern Copper) - lowest cash cost producer globally, integrated mine-to-refinery operations.
• TECK (Teck Resources) - Canadian-headquartered, copper-and-zinc focus, divested its coal business.
• RIO (Rio Tinto) - diversified major with growing copper exposure through Oyu Tolgoi and Resolution.
• BHP (BHP Group) - the largest diversified miner, with material copper exposure inside an iron-ore book.
• VALE (Vale SA) - Brazilian iron-ore major with secondary copper and nickel.

Gold and gold-adjacent names:

• NEM (Newmont) - largest pure-play gold producer post the Newcrest acquisition.
• GOLD (Barrick Gold) - second-largest pure-play, lower-cost mines in Africa and Latin America.
• AEM (Agnico Eagle) - high-quality Canadian gold producer, jurisdictional safety premium.
• KGC (Kinross Gold) - mid-cap producer, leverage to gold price moves.
• WPM (Wheaton Precious Metals) - streaming/royalty model, lower volatility profile.
• FNV (Franco-Nevada) - the largest royalty company, broad exposure with no operating risk.

The screener prints price, market cap, P/E (trailing and forward), dividend yield, ROE, debt-to-equity, revenue and EPS growth, beta, the 1-year price target, and the implied upside in a single table. Every cell in the live template is a MarketXLS formula so the screener refreshes whenever you open the workbook.

You will notice that the gold miners are sitting at higher RSI readings and lower betas than the copper miners. That is consistent with the regime: gold is leading, copper is consolidating, and the equities are reflecting that.

Portfolio allocation: turning the regime into a sleeve

The Portfolio Allocation sheet is where the regime signal becomes an actual position list. It is built around three pre-baked allocations:

Each column sums to 100 percent. The Selected Weight column is a formula that looks at the Main Dashboard regime signal and picks the right column. When the dashboard prints RISK-ON, the sleeve loads up on copper and copper miners. When it prints RISK-OFF, the sleeve rotates into gold, gold miners, and long bonds. When it prints NEUTRAL, you get a roughly balanced mix.

The Position Dollars column multiplies the Selected Weight by the portfolio size from the Main Dashboard. The Shares column divides the dollar amount by the live price from QM_Last to give you a starting share count. None of this is a recommendation. It is a worked example of how to convert a single macro signal into a concrete allocation that you can adjust to your own risk and tax situation.

Notice that even the Risk-On allocation retains 10 to 20 percent in gold and 5 percent in long bonds. The point is that the ratio is a relative signal, not an absolute one. Keeping some duration and some gold inside a risk-on sleeve protects you against the indicator being wrong.

Macro comparison: cross-asset context

The Macro Comparison sheet is the final tab. It is a 12-row table that places the copper-to-gold ratio in the context of nine other widely watched cross-asset proxies:

• TLT for long-duration Treasury bonds
• HYG for high-yield credit
• LQD for investment-grade credit
• SPY for the broad US equity market
• XLI for the industrials sector
• XLB for the materials sector
• UUP for the US dollar index

The table prints last price, 50-day SMA, 200-day SMA, 30-day volatility, beta, and year-to-date return for each. The point is to give you a cross-check. If the copper-to-gold ratio is signalling RISK-ON but HYG is rolling over, you have an internal disagreement. If the ratio is signalling RISK-OFF but SPY is making new highs, the equity market is ignoring the signal. Markets do not always agree with macro indicators. The sheet lets you see those disagreements at a glance.

How to refresh the live template

Once you have the live template open in Excel with the MarketXLS add-in installed, refreshing is a one-step process:

1. Press Ctrl + Alt + F9 to force a full recalculation, or click MarketXLS > Refresh All from the ribbon.
2. Every QM_Last, SimpleMovingAverage, TreasuryRate10Y, PERatio, and other live formula pulls fresh data.
3. The Main Dashboard ratio, the regime signal, the Portfolio Allocation sleeves, and the Mining Stocks screener all recompute together.

That is the entire workflow. You can leave the workbook open on your second monitor and refresh once a day. You can also schedule a Power Automate or VBA refresh on a timer if you prefer fully hands-free updates.

Caveats and risk notes

A few caveats are worth flagging up front.

The ratio can stay broken for a long time. The current divergence between the copper-to-gold ratio and the 10-year yield has persisted for most of 2024 and 2025. That is a longer dislocation than the historical norm. Cross-asset signals are not market timing tools.

ETF tracking error. CPER and GLD are not perfect proxies. CPER holds copper futures and rolls them, which introduces contango and backwardation effects. GLD holds physical gold but has an expense ratio. The ratio computed from futures is slightly different from the ratio computed from spot, and the futures ratio is what most institutions watch.

Mining stocks have idiosyncratic risk. The 12 names in the screener are exposed to country risk (VALE in Brazil, KGC in Russia historically), labour risk, capex cycles, and management execution. The copper-to-gold ratio is a macro signal. The miners are micro exposures that can underperform the metal even when the regime is favourable.

This is educational, not investment advice. The template is a research tool. It is not a forecast, not a recommendation, and not a substitute for your own analysis. Read every miner's 10-K before committing capital, and consult a licensed financial advisor for personal investment decisions.

FAQ: copper to gold ratio tracker Excel

What is a good copper to gold ratio?

There is no single "good" level. The ratio has historically traded between roughly 1.5 and 6.5 on the raw scale (150 to 650 multiplied). Levels above 3.0 raw have coincided with reflationary booms (2007, 2011). Levels below 2.0 raw have coincided with risk-off episodes (2009, 2020, present day). The more useful question is whether the ratio is rising or falling and how it relates to the 10-year Treasury yield.

Does the copper to gold ratio always predict bond yields?

No. The historical correlation between the copper-to-gold ratio and the 10-year Treasury yield is positive but imperfect, and there are extended periods where the relationship breaks down. The current divergence (early 2024 through May 2026) is one of those periods. Use the indicator as one input among many.

Can I track the copper to gold ratio in Google Sheets instead of Excel?

You can, but you will need a data source that supplies live copper and gold ETF prices. MarketXLS is purpose-built for Excel and ships an Excel add-in. If you prefer Google Sheets, you can pull ETF prices with the GOOGLEFINANCE function for CPER and GLD, then build the ratio manually. The full MarketXLS workflow with miners and yields is Excel-native.

Why use CPER and GLD instead of copper futures and gold futures?

ETFs trade in standard brokerage accounts, do not require a futures account, and do not have rolling expirations to track. CPER and GLD are the cleanest retail-accessible proxies for copper and gold spot prices. The ratio computed from CPER and GLD tracks the futures-based ratio closely enough for macro signalling, with a small daily tracking error.

How often should I check the copper to gold ratio?

Daily is plenty for most investors. The ratio is a slow-moving macro signal. Reading it intraday adds noise without adding insight. The template is designed to be refreshed once a day so you can watch the regime label and the divergence reading evolve over weeks and months, not hours.

Does the copper to gold ratio work for non-US bond markets?

The relationship is strongest with US 10-year Treasury yields because copper and gold are dollar-priced and the US Treasury is the global risk-free benchmark. The ratio can also be informative for German bunds and UK gilts, but the correlation is looser. Stick with US 10-year yields for the cleanest signal.

The bottom line

The copper-to-gold ratio is one of the cleanest cross-asset signals in macro investing. It captures growth expectations through copper, fear and currency debasement through gold, and the relationship between the two through a single division. When the ratio rises, bond yields tend to rise and risk assets tend to outperform. When the ratio falls, the opposite holds.

In May 2026 the ratio is sitting near a multi-decade low while the 10-year Treasury yield is elevated above 4.4 percent. That divergence is the macro story heading into the June 17-18 FOMC. Whether yields fall toward the ratio or copper rallies toward the yield, one side has historically closed the gap. A live dashboard that prints the ratio, the yield, and the divergence in real time is the cleanest way to watch it.

The template in this post does that with six worksheets, 12 miner stocks, three pre-baked allocations, and a single regime classifier driven by two QM_Last calls. Every formula is verified, every input is editable, and the workbook refreshes on a single keypress.

Download the templates, plug them into your MarketXLS workflow, and watch the regime evolve.

Ready to build more macro indicators inside Excel? Visit MarketXLS to get the full add-in with 1,100+ live formulas, or book a demo to walk through this template and the broader product with our team.

Disclaimer: This article and the accompanying template are for educational purposes only. Nothing in this post or the workbook is investment advice. Past relationships between the copper-to-gold ratio and bond yields can break down. Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.