Best way to buy gold?

Albermarle

tranquility1 said:

Retired_Minky said:

coastline said:

tranquility1 said:

lifemagic said:

To answer op's question, an ETF is the best way to hold any significant amount. Most, even on the London stock exchange, are in USD meaning you're gambling on the usd/gbp exchange rate as well as the gold price. The answer is to buy one hedged to pound sterling.

I would recommend the GBP hedged one from Invesco, on the London stock market, ticker SGLS. Backed by physical gold and a fee of 0.3%, in comparison to the more expensive one by Wisdomtree ticker GBSP charging 0.6%.

Having looked into it a bit, I think iShares gold/silver ETCs are actually in GBP/GBX, rather than USD.

Handy site for ETF's.

ETF portfolios made simple | justETF

Comparison, Market Cap, Physically backed , Domicile.

Top Gold ETFs/ETCs | Find The Best Gold ETF/ETC | justETF

Thanks. Really useful link. I've just read "own the world" and I'm looking to add Gold to my portfolio.

I'm fee centric so like the low fees (0.15%). The Invesco funds look good.

Any recommendations on why you would go for a GBP hedged one over the USD spot rate?

The site lists the GBP hedged one in the top 3.

Gold has just dipped too.


Naturally, I bought more the day before it dipped.

I have just been reading about it , they are calling it a 'flash crash ' although at 4% not quite in the area of equity flash crashes .
It is down 9% since this thread was started ( in January )

jimjames

AlanP_2 said:

HansOndabush said:

It's no good looking at gold in fiat currency numbers. All fiat currency has drastically lost value compared to gold since 1971 when we came off the gold standard. For thousands of years an ounce of gold has been able to buy you a good suit and it still can. The same cannot be said for a unit of fiat currency.

An ounce of gold can buy you a new suit at any time in that period, its just that at some points you would get no change, and at others you would get 50/60/70% back.

I don't know how many tailors accept gold in payment for suits

tranquility1

jimjames said:

AlanP_2 said:

HansOndabush said:

It's no good looking at gold in fiat currency numbers. All fiat currency has drastically lost value compared to gold since 1971 when we came off the gold standard. For thousands of years an ounce of gold has been able to buy you a good suit and it still can. The same cannot be said for a unit of fiat currency.

An ounce of gold can buy you a new suit at any time in that period, its just that at some points you would get no change, and at others you would get 50/60/70% back.

I don't know how many tailors accept gold in payment for suits

Why wouldn't they?

Gold IS money.  And it's value is pretty stable.  

I'd accept gold for a task I was asked to do.  I'd happily use whatever the spot price was at any given time.

adindas

lifemagic said:

To answer op's question, an ETF is the best way to hold any significant amount. Most, even on the London stock exchange, are in USD meaning you're gambling on the usd/gbp exchange rate as well as the gold price. The answer is to buy one hedged to pound sterling.
.

Not necesseraly.

I am holding Gold ETF as part of my investment portfolio and I am not gambling on the usd/gbp exchange rate but I am hedging it against the inflation which I believe will keep raising in the near future due to FED keep increasing the interest of the US treasury bond.

The key here is to hold your investment in the platform that allow you to have usd as a basis currency. You defenitely can not have it under S&S ISA account.

Zola.

tranquility1 said:

jimjames said:

AlanP_2 said:

HansOndabush said:

It's no good looking at gold in fiat currency numbers. All fiat currency has drastically lost value compared to gold since 1971 when we came off the gold standard. For thousands of years an ounce of gold has been able to buy you a good suit and it still can. The same cannot be said for a unit of fiat currency.

An ounce of gold can buy you a new suit at any time in that period, its just that at some points you would get no change, and at others you would get 50/60/70% back.

I don't know how many tailors accept gold in payment for suits

Why wouldn't they?

Gold IS money.  And it's value is pretty stable.  

I'd accept gold for a task I was asked to do.  I'd happily use whatever the spot price was at any given time.

Its hassle for the retailer to verify that its not fake gold etc. 

Prism

Zola. said:

tranquility1 said:

jimjames said:

AlanP_2 said:

HansOndabush said:

It's no good looking at gold in fiat currency numbers. All fiat currency has drastically lost value compared to gold since 1971 when we came off the gold standard. For thousands of years an ounce of gold has been able to buy you a good suit and it still can. The same cannot be said for a unit of fiat currency.

An ounce of gold can buy you a new suit at any time in that period, its just that at some points you would get no change, and at others you would get 50/60/70% back.

I don't know how many tailors accept gold in payment for suits

Why wouldn't they?

Gold IS money.  And it's value is pretty stable.  

I'd accept gold for a task I was asked to do.  I'd happily use whatever the spot price was at any given time.

Its hassle for the retailer to verify that its not fake gold etc. 

Exactly. How many retailers have the ability to test gold.

adindas

tranquility1 said:

Why wouldn't they?

Gold IS money.  And it's value is pretty stable.  

I'd accept gold for a task I was asked to do.  I'd happily use whatever the spot price was at any given time.

Well because whether you alone are happy or not is irrelevant. There are billions of people outthere are not happy to accept gold as a method of payment. People might want to accept gold if all of the risk, the hassles associated with taking gold as a method of payment are compensated. For instance, getting it at a lower than 50% (say) of the spot price.

As someone has said: You will need a goldsmith around you, all the time to verify that the gold is genuine. People might give you a !!!!!! that you might think a real pure gold. The same think if you see tourists are getting fake currencies, the old Belarusian Rubbles that worth nothing on the street of Europe.

Also do not forget If you have gold at home just make sure that other people do not know that. This is to prevent professional thieves stealing if from you. Also, just be aware that someone might rob you on the street or at your own home and you might get life threatening injury or even lose your life.

wmb194

Prism said:

Zola. said:

tranquility1 said:

jimjames said:

AlanP_2 said:

HansOndabush said:

It's no good looking at gold in fiat currency numbers. All fiat currency has drastically lost value compared to gold since 1971 when we came off the gold standard. For thousands of years an ounce of gold has been able to buy you a good suit and it still can. The same cannot be said for a unit of fiat currency.

An ounce of gold can buy you a new suit at any time in that period, its just that at some points you would get no change, and at others you would get 50/60/70% back.

I don't know how many tailors accept gold in payment for suits

Why wouldn't they?

Gold IS money.  And it's value is pretty stable.  

I'd accept gold for a task I was asked to do.  I'd happily use whatever the spot price was at any given time.

Its hassle for the retailer to verify that its not fake gold etc. 

Exactly. How many retailers have the ability to test gold.

In this scenario this is what coins are for.