Gold is not money (but it might be a good investment)

purch

Well, we appear to have moved the culprit for the under performance of Silver away from deliberate price manipulation and onto the Arbitragers.

Blame the arbers, always a good excuse (used it myself plenty of times :eek:)

RDB

Generali wrote: »

Plus you can never eliminate counterparty risk (the risk that the person you're trading against goes bust) or operational risk (the risk that your operations people screw up).

Thats a good point, you are far better buying bullion and storing it in your safe. No counterparty risk.

Loopgames

chucky wrote: »

what dividend does it pay until it does unwind?

The same amount as a general insurance policy with the added benefit of selling it on when it matures (maturity date depends on policy holder whim ).

chucky

Loopgames wrote: »

The same amount as a general insurance policy with the added benefit of selling it on when it matures (maturity date depends on policy holder whim ).

so i could be waiting for ever for this to happen and not receive anything back then...

Bullfighter wrote: »

When the carry trades unwind it will be spectacular.

Loopgames

chucky wrote: »

so i could be waiting for ever for this to happen and not receive anything back then...

You could also have no return on your paper money since its buying power has depreciated quite a bit. So up to you..keep the paper money that gives you no real return or lock its value today into gold. At least you keep the value of your money.

Either way you're holding 'money' that may appreciate, stays the same or depreciates in value. Take calculated risks and jump on whichever bandwagon you choose.

chucky

Loopgames wrote: »

You could also have no return on your paper money since its buying power has depreciated quite a bit. So up to you..keep the paper money that gives you no real return or lock its value today into gold. At least you keep the value of your money.

Either way you're holding 'money' that may appreciate, stays the same or depreciates in value. Take calculated risks and jump on whichever bandwagon you choose.

so if i bought a kilo of gold in Jan 1980 i would have to wait until 2004 for the nominal value to just break even.

how long would i need to wait for the real value of my investment to be better than my original invested amount?



could i have invested elsewhere and got a better return right?

brixham

So what do people do with their gold ? Do they sit and look at it or turn it into something pretty to wear ? Or do they have a piece of paper to say the own some gold sitting in some far afield vault somewhere ?

Bullfighter

chucky wrote: »

so if i bought a kilo of gold in Jan 1980 i would have to wait until 2004 for the nominal value to just break even.

how long would i need to wait for the real value of my investment to be better than my original invested amount?



could i have invested elsewhere and got a better return right?

Try 1978 or 1982 and re-run your calculation.

Anyway, my point still stands.

Bullfighter

brixham wrote: »

So what do people do with their gold ? Do they sit and look at it or turn it into something pretty to wear ? Or do they have a piece of paper to say the own some gold sitting in some far afield vault somewhere ?

What do you 'do' with your Cash ISA?

Bullfighter

Harry_Powell wrote: »

Do you invest in bonds, shares, funds, property, etc?

No, no, no and no.

I smell systemic change.