What a Loss

Linton

dunstonh wrote: »

I think it is clear that we all want to know which BM portfolio the OP was investing in.

Remember that most of what they do are defined portfolios and not custom. They publish their stats on their website.

And bespoke portfolios are only available for sums of £200K or more.

bigfreddiel

Correct, I am a bit harsh, especially when it comes to any expert, the emphasis should be on the ex part of the phrase. Most talk complete garbage and get it wrong more often than not.

How do they get it wrong? In any number of ways, here are a few.

1 make things complicated to impress the client, they won't ask questions because that means they look stooopid! And no one wants that.

2 charge a lot, must be worth It mustn't Madge!

3 don't ask questions luv, he knows better than you!

4 look at all my qualifications, of course I know what I'm recommending.

Now if all these experts were really any good, surely they would just take their own advice and benefit from it, no need for any clients, but of course they need some capital to work with don't they, thus the need for clients, preferably one with a nice big pot of money.

And that about sums it up for me.

Q how do you turn a large fortune into a small fortune?

A give it an expert!

BOOM BOOM - thanks to Basail Brush for that

Everyone this is only tongue in cheek, completely genuine and fabulous experts are available

Cheers fj

FatherAbraham

lvader wrote: »

Given the volatility of gold I have to disagree, the idea the gold stays constant in value (everything else changes) is complete nonsense. Like any investment the value of Gold can go up and down and prone to both bull and bear markets.

I have absolutely no idea what you think you're disagreeing with.

My comment was about the high trading expenses (spread) and high storage costs of physical gold making it a rotten way to invest in the commodity.

On the other hand, I implied, physical gold is an excellent real option for the unlikely event that the state-backed currency suffers a loss of confidence, as many Jews discovered when trying to flee Nazi-occupied Poland.

In this sense, physical gold is an insurance policy, as all real options are.

I fail to see the relevance of your comment to this important distinction.

Warmest regards,
FA

lvader

FatherAbraham wrote: »

I have absolutely no idea what you think you're disagreeing with.

My comment was about the high trading expenses (spread) and high storage costs of physical gold making it a rotten way to invest in the commodity.

On the other hand, I implied, physical gold is an excellent real option for the unlikely event that the state-backed currency suffers a loss of confidence, as many Jews discovered when trying to flee Nazi-occupied Poland.

In this sense, physical gold is an insurance policy, as all real options are.

I fail to see the relevance of your comment to this important distinction.

Warmest regards,
FA

You can buy/sell with a spread of less than 5%, storage doesn't need to cost anything as it's small enough to hide. Over 5 years that is less than many funds.

FatherAbraham

lvader wrote: »

You can buy/sell with a spread of less than 5%, storage doesn't need to cost anything as it's small enough to hide. Over 5 years that is less than many funds.

There's a recent DT article on the illiquidity of physical gold:

... After all, even if these real assets have risen in value, it is of limited use if you can't derive an income from them, sell them at their current price or spend them.

One reader who contacted The Daily Telegraph said the sales process may not be as transparent as many people think. He bought a 1oz Britannia gold coin for £1,129 just over a year ago – as gold prices peaked. With prices falling, he decided to try to sell it...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/9932766/Buy-gold-they-say-but-how-do-you-sell-it.html

Warmest regards,
FA

bigadaj

FatherAbraham wrote: »

There's a recent DT article on the illiquidity of physical gold:

... After all, even if these real assets have risen in value, it is of limited use if you can't derive an income from them, sell them at their current price or spend them.

One reader who contacted The Daily Telegraph said the sales process may not be as transparent as many people think. He bought a 1oz Britannia gold coin for £1,129 just over a year ago – as gold prices peaked. With prices falling, he decided to try to sell it...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/9932766/Buy-gold-they-say-but-how-do-you-sell-it.html

Warmest regards,
FA

I know journalism is poor but that is at the lower end of the scale.

The dealer would buy it back at a lower price than he is currently selling, not exactly a shock.

I really should complain about that car dealer that offers less money for a car he's buying than he would sell it for, or indeed any other retail example. Firms that sell things for the same price they buy them generally don't stay trading too long.

I find it hard to believe that other shops wouldn't want to buy, they will just not at the spot price that the naive investor thinks his gold is worth.

FatherAbraham

bigadaj wrote: »

I find it hard to believe that other shops wouldn't want to buy, they will just not at the spot price that the naive investor thinks his gold is worth.

Try it, then.

Two of the problems which a dealer buying gold coin from a previously unknown consumer faces are:

• How do I know that this gold coin lawfully belongs to the prospective seller?
• How do I know that this apparently gold coin is genuine?

Establishing those facts with an unknown counterparty is costly, and carries a non-trivial risk of the wrong decision being made. It's just not profitable to buy physical gold coins for most dealers.

It can be done if one goes to a specialist dealer in a large city, but that means most of the population needs to travel to sell the things. Costly, and hardly a high-liquidity market.

Warmest regards,
FA

Malthusian

bigfreddiel wrote: »

Q how do you turn a large fortune into a small fortune?

A give it an expert!

Can't even get the joke right. The joke is "Q: How do you get a fund manager to make you a small fortune?" "A: Give him a large one." The phrase "make a small fortune" creates the expectation that you are talking about wealth creation which you then subvert in the punchline by revealing you were talking about destroying it; that subversion of expectation is what makes a joke funny. The humour is potentially enhanced by the shared snigger of a mutual prejudice.

Humour is like investment, you see, if you ignore the basic principles you end up looking silly and everyone rolls their eyes. (Although unlike investment no further damage is caused, as long as you didn't give up the day job.)