Gold

ramellous1

What is the spread on these? Are these traded in USA not UK?
What is the true cost when dealer costs are factored?

Chrismaths

spread: 0.076%
traded: UK, US, Canada, Australia, France and more.
dealer costs: As low as £7.

UK ticker is GBS

If you want gold, an ETF is a no brainer. (unless of course you have a large multi million pound insured vault with henchman and guns lying around idle)

cheerfulcat

If you want gold, an ETF is a no brainer. (unless of course you have a large multi million pound insured vault with henchman and guns lying around idle)

Depends on what you want the gold for. If it is to protect yourself from a global financial catastrophe, it's not much use in an ETF. If it's just as a punt on the gold price then ETFs are fine. Oh, and the vaults & henchmen are usually available from reputable bullion dealers at a small extra charge...

Chrismaths

Or if you like the shiny. But barring money (in the sense of all global currencies) becoming worthless, the provisions of the ETF are fine. Given that any situation in which global currencies became worthless are likely to involve nuclear war/mass plague, then the most use a bar of gold bullion is going to be is as a weapon to swing at marauding zombies. I find a crowbar has the same effect for less money.

cheerfulcat

Chrismaths wrote:

But barring money (in the sense of all global currencies) becoming worthless[...]

As any fule kno, fiat currencies are already worthless. It's just a matter of everyone catching on...

Cheerfulgoldbug

Chrismaths

I've never heard a reason why gold should be valuable in a global catastrophe. You can't eat it, you can't sleep under it (well you could but you get my point), you can't drink it, you can't get around in it, and it won't protect you from disease. Food, shelter, water, transport, medicine are valuable, as they can keep you alive. Shiny elements aren't. But I'm starting to sound like one of those conspiracists from Ohio...

But a Bretton Woods style problem, then I can see the point - but an ETF will help you with that.

ManAtHome

Chrismaths wrote:

I've never heard a reason why gold should be valuable in a global catastrophe.

Yes, my last tin of beans would go to the guy with the gun...

cloud_dog

Agree with a number of posters that general funds do not provide exposure to the metal only to stocks mining in that area.

Have put some of my money into Central Fund of Canada - CEF - (not recommending it, just for info).

Split almost 50 / 50 between Gold and Silver. Nice thing about this fund is that becasue of its structure it can be held in an ISA. It trades on NYSE and Toronto, I trade via SelfTrade. Prefer this fund because

a) I can hold it in an ISA (and CTF)
b) It holds physical bullion, Gold / Silver ETF's underlying bullion can still be paper, i.e. futures contracts

Point to note, please watch the SP / NAV premium (or discount - very rare) if considering investing.

cloud_dog

Edit: they also do a gold only fund (same structure) but cant remember the name

Generali

ManAtHome wrote:

Yes, my last tin of beans would go to the guy with the gun...

My definition of the ultimate insurance policy is a fist full of Kruggerands and a pistol.