Gold, lost its Glister?

StevieJ

I wonder if we will hear 'Well done Brownie, you got a good price back then'

marathonic

My new pension plan is invested 5% in JPM Natural Resources, and has been for the past 6 weeks.

It's taken a hit but, luckily, I haven't transferred my previous pot over - so it's only 5% of two monthly contributions invested.

The fund is one of the poorest performers of recent years but I'll be sticking with it, even after I transfer over my old pension pot. It does have significant exposure to precious metals so, for now, I'm holding off on transferring my old pot over.

A 5% total investment in this fund will probably see approximately 2% of my pension invested in precious metals. This would be what I would consider the highest risk portion of my pension.

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

I wonder if we will hear 'Well done Brownie, you got a good price back then'

The price has got a long way to go before Mr Brown struck a good deal!

Well it looks like the FT's graph updates nicely so you can follow that during your working day. The intraday low is $1385 so far.

This bloke isn't going to be having a good day:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/billionaire-paulson-the-biggest-loser-after-precious-metal-falls-20130414-2htr7.html

smartn

Still way up from where it was a few years ago though so plenty of scope to fall further. Never could see the attraction in gold myself, you buy shares at least you have a stake in something capable of making money. Gold can't do anything by itself and is only worth whatever someone else is prepared to pay for it.

OK, so the same holds for shares to an extent but if the company is making money then what people are prepared to pay for it can change.

Ark_Welder

OffGridLiving wrote: »

"As soon as anyone discusses investing in Gold, someone will mention 'Them'."

Are the giant ants selling their holdings too?

sue321

''The demise of gold is still at an early stage,'' according to ABN Amro Group. If it falls a lot further - would that not be a good time to buy it?

Generali

sue321 wrote: »

''The demise of gold is still at an early stage,'' according to ABN Amro Group. If it falls a lot further - would that not be a good time to buy it?

It depends on whether it goes down further than that!

The gold price has gone up a lot over the past few years.

Fella

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Yep.
Still too many [STRIKE]goldbugs[/STRIKE] greater fools out there willing to be separated from their hard earned money in order to stack up piles of useless shiny things.

Hm, to be fair over the last few years those fools have done substantially better than those fools who invested in, say, those brick things. Even allowing for recent falls.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Fella wrote: »

Hm, to be fair over the last few years those fools have done substantially better than those fools who invested in, say, those brick things. Even allowing for recent falls.

Hmmmm, that's a statement open to cherry picking of data followed by endless bickering.

But if we look at the 5 year returns for Gold, and compare it to the 5 year returns for Aberdeen "bricks" (including yield) it'd be a close call, but I suspect bricks would slightly win out.

The 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months comparison is a clear win for bricks, just about anywhere.

There's probably a case to be made for some Gold wins in the 18 month to 5 year range in some areas. Although if GLD continues to crash this hard, that may change rapidly.

robmatic

Fella wrote: »

Hm, to be fair over the last few years those fools have done substantially better than those fools who invested in, say, those brick things. Even allowing for recent falls.

I dunno, I am feeling pretty comfortable having bought a pile of bricks three years ago.

And I benchmark my work pension (started 2011) vs an equivalent investment in gold bullion. Even before the last few days it wouldn't be a comfortable comparison for a goldbug.