Gold - worth a punt?

miningmaven

I am also a big fan of gold.

The simplest way to buy gold is through an ETF - an Exchange Traded Fund. You can use your stock broker the ticker code for the one i hold is BULL.

I also own a some shares in a few small gold mining companies.
These are considered very high risk/high reward, becuase they have not yet started producing and until they do there is always a risk.

I choose to invest in these miners, having researched and accept the risk.

I treat them more as a way of spicing up my portfolio but they are not for everyone. Think of it like a lottery ticket so dont put anything i cant afford to lose.

The reason why i like them is that when they do start going into production they are likely to shoot up to 10 or 20 times my original investment. If they dont, then i could lose the lot!!

My favourite is a small Turkish near term producer called Ariana Resources.

http://www.arianaresources.com/s/Home.asp

This is just for information if anyone is interested in a bit of a punt. It is absolutely not to be considered a tip in any way.

turbobob

Can anyone explain the differences between the ETFS Physical Gold and ETFS Gold exchange traded funds?

jon3001

turbobob wrote: »

Can anyone explain the differences between the ETFS Physical Gold and ETFS Gold exchange traded funds?

The 'Physical Gold' is backed by metal held by a custodian.

The other one is backed by paper futures contracts.

turbobob

Thanks for the explanation I thought it would be something like that.

MrMalkin

You should be very careful trading in one commodity only, it's putting all your eggs in one basket, like if you buy shares in a single company rather than a broad range of them.

I think if you are serious about trading or investing in gold, you would be better served doing it as part of a portfolio along with other commodities (and probably other types of investments also, like shares or whatever).

Interesting thread though.

miningmaven

MrMalkin wrote: »

You should be very careful trading in one commodity only, it's putting all your eggs in one basket, like if you buy shares in a single company rather than a broad range of them.

I think if you are serious about trading or investing in gold, you would be better served doing it as part of a portfolio along with other commodities (and probably other types of investments also, like shares or whatever).

Interesting thread though.

a very successful resource & commodity investor once told me that in his opinion "Diversifying" was Di-"worse"-ifying.

His strategy was to put around 15% -20% of his risk capital into high octane opportunities. That man was Jim Slater.

each to his own. IMHO Gold is not like any other commodity. Gold is Money.
If you keep all your wealth in one currency (i.e Stirling) then surely you are also putting all your eggs in one basket.

TRUSt_NO_1_2

fosking wrote: »

Hedger,
I came across this website www.bullionvault.com and have found it to be exactly what I was looking for.

I used BullionVault a couple of years ago,before moving into mining stocks.Right now I wish I had stayed in physical gold at Bullionvault.
It is EXCELLENT.It is fully allocated gold,as you probably know by now.

As for Gold and Silver ETF's (eg Barclay's SLV)...they are a con set up by the banks to keep investors out of the physical market.

Read Theodore Bulter at
http://www.butlerresearch.com/archive_free.html
and Jim Willie at
http://www.goldenjackass.com/main5.html
Listen to a Jim interview particularly from 25 minutes into the interview where he talks about gold and silver ETF's
http://www.contraryinvestorscafe.com/broadcast.php?media=117

also listen to the interview with Ian MacDonald on Sept 6th at
http://www.financialsense.com/fsn/main.html

calisto

Buy *some* physical gold! Bullion coins are far better than large bars, as if you need to trade then small sovereigns (the original £1 coin, when we were on the gold standard) are far easier to shift than a 1kg bar.

Interestingly, the current price of a (£1) sovereign is £114. That shows exactly how inflation has worked with fiat currency.

Other bullion to buy are 1oz kruggerands. Personally, I don't expect to pay more than 5% including P&P over the spot price when buying bullion.

I've found http://www.elminvestments.co.uk/gold-coins.html seem to be the cheapest for just sovs/krugs. www.coininvestdirect.com for more exotic coins such as Australian Nuggets, Canadian Maples, Austrian Philarmonikars, Chinese Pandas, etc.

calisto

You know what - I have never bought from elm-investments.co.uk in my life, but found their dealer price on krugs and sovs remarkable. coininvestdirect have always been the best for me. "Elm" match them on Sovs, but are £20 cheaper on 1oz Krugs.

I decided after posting to do a search.... and sure enough, the only references to this "35 year trading" company are about 3 forums messages.

The fact they operate only from a PO Box, and have no shop prescence in Bristol, is highly suspicious - as is the poor webpage which seems to indicate a live spot price, but has been stuck at the same spot every time I've visited it in the last week.
Unless anyone can prove otherwise, I would say best avoid. :eek:

They may supply gold plated tungsten from China for all I know!

calisto

WHOIS reports "PT IT Solutions Ltd"
4 Frome Valley Road
Frenchay
Bristol
BS16 1HD
GB

PO Box is a big no no, as is the non - 35 year history

:eek:

Domain name:
        elminvestments.co.uk
    Registrant:
        PT IT Solutions Ltd
    Registrant type:
        Unknown
    Registrant's address:
        4 Frome Valley Road
        Frenchay
        Bristol
        BS16 1HD
        GB
    Registrar:
        Key-Systems GmbH [Tag = KEY-SYSTEMS-DE]
        URL: [URL]http://www.Key-Systems.net[/URL]
    Relevant dates:
        Registered on: 30-May-2007
        Renewal date:  30-May-2009
        Last updated:  16-Jul-2007
    Registration status:
        Registered until renewal date.
    Name servers:
        ns3.ourdnservers.com
        ns4.ourdnservers.com
    WHOIS lookup made at 00:26:29 08-Sep-2008
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