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(Kitco News) - A veteran bank-risk analyst and former New York Fed insider has rebalanced his own portfolio out of bank stocks and into precious metals, calling gold an “asymmetrical trade” as central banks shift away from the dollar, according to Christopher Whalen, chairman of Whalen Global Advisors and editor of The Institutional Risk Analyst. Speaking with Kitco News, Whalen said he did “a major rebalance at the end of the third quarter,” getting out of his bank stocks, shorting some consumer lenders on expectations of rising credit costs, and emphasizing precious metals. He called gold an asymmetrical trade because “global central banks are continuing to shift away from dollars, shift towards gold,” seeking an independent reserve asset no other country controls, and said every nation, including the US, is now “husbanding their gold reserves.” Whalen also warned that investors in private equity are “entirely beholden to the manager” for what their holdings are worth, and urged anyone with a pension or annuity exposed to it to get out if they can. On the economy, he said food prices could go “much higher” next year as farmers struggle to afford fertilizer, and that the Federal Reserve will likely have to return to quantitative easing.