investing in gold/silver and possibly trading online? any tips advice?

ChesterDog

That's me!

:-)

IvorBiggun

James_B. wrote: »

No, it really is not. I used to trade commodities (at one of the big banks...) and we really did not try to manipulate it.

Although, now you mention it, maybe there was a super extra-secret "other" trading team one floor up, I suppose, doing this and keeping it secret from the "dupes" that thought they knew what was going on...

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28509979

Sorry on mobile so a quick general link. Several banks have been fined. HSBC and Morgan Stanley iirc who held ridiculously large future positions in silver a couple of years ago.

James_B.

Oh come on, really? They are accused (not convicted) of attempting to nudge the daily fixing rate, not even accused of trying to "rig" the trading price at all overall or at other times.

And as I said, that used to be me, only a few years ago, and we did not do it. The odd individual badly attempting to nudge a daily fix is not even close to "rigging the market". Rigging the market would mean driving the wholesale price noticeably away from where it would otherwise be trading, that clearly is not the case in metals. That some "other" team could be doing this while mine was also running metals risk ourselves is simply not credible either.

pop_gun

James_B. wrote: »

Oh come on, really? They are accused (not convicted) of attempting to nudge the daily fixing rate, not even accused of trying to "rig" the trading price at all overall or at other times.

And as I said, that used to be me, only a few years ago, and we did not do it. The odd individual badly attempting to nudge a daily fix is not even close to "rigging the market". Rigging the market would mean driving the wholesale price noticeably away from where it would otherwise be trading, that clearly is not the case in metals. That some "other" team could be doing this while mine was also running metals risk ourselves is simply not credible either.

Post financial crash have you seen a banker convicted of .. anything?
A fine is the most they'll ever get.

The gold price is obviously manipulated. But the good news is the mechanisms the central banks use to suppress the price won't work once their vaults run dry. Which we know is happening, as Germany tried to repatriate it's gold and couldn't get it.
Bank savings rates are worthless. the stock market with it's premiums, charges and other penalties for making trades. Makes it a non starter for an investor, who doesn't want the risk of losing his entire capital in one afternoon speculating against high frequency algorithms.
The bond market is the biggest bubble out there and yields don't beat inflation.

Gold has outperformed the stock market for 11 of the last 15 years. Why wouldn't I want to own it?