Curious to see if anyone knows about gold or precious metals as an investment. Thoughts?

This is a really ambiguous question. What information are you looking for?

Yes I do.

Yes Gold and other precious metals are investments.

Well it is a pretty general question.

But I wanted to know what people that about it as an investment.......likes, dislikes, etc. Nothing complicated.

My questions about gold:


Is it still illegal to hoard gold?


What's the minimum amount of money someone could invest buying gold on the stock market?


Would it be possible for the US or any large economy to go back to the gold standard?


Does any country still use the gold standard?

This is my area, I have worked in the gold industry the last 15 years in the mining and exploration end.

Good advice on investing in gold is rare.

There are five basic ways to play gold

-Physical gold
-gold pool or certificates where you don't have to worry about starage
-shorts
-mining companies (medium to large producers will move up and down with the price of gold except more so)
-exploration companies (able to go to zero or the moon)

I don't give out advice personally to gold newbs as they can get hurt bad.

OK, well here is the quick quick explanation.

Gold is typically looked at as a Cash alternative and inflation hedge. It typically acts inversely to the strength of the dollar. People view it as a safe investment. I think this is incorrect, gold trades as a commodity which is highly volatile.



I would never hold more than 5-10% of a portfolio in gold. I also think buying physical gold, unless you own a jewelry business is silly.

I think the ads that it is going to 2000 an ounce are highly inflammatory and don't know how they can legally be put on the radio.

Typical rule of thumb with any investment, if the general public is screaming buy, sell. And vice versa.

Very cool, thanks for the info.

Thanks.

Gold couldnt really break to far past $1000 an ounce even with one of the most uncertain times we have seen in 25 years or maybe longer. Cant really see it going to $2000 or higher like some are suggesting now that things seem to be calming down. If I wanted it as a short term speculation I would buy a double or triple exposure etf.

I'm going to give my thoughts on gold as an investment in a day or two, so stay tuned

DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING

lol. you do know that maybe 2 people will get this joke?

Yeah, but those two people will enjoy it. I'm breaking down comedy barriers two posters at a time.



also, my thoughts on Gold as an investment.


It may or may not be a good idea.


When something is bought and sold exclusively as an investment, sometimes the price can get inflated. Everything like that is a bubble. Gold may be in that stage right now. There might be a point when people buying and flipping gold will get caught when the bubble bursts just like they did with real estate. It's a possibility. Nothing is sure thing when it comes to investments. I read this somewhere.

FYP

FYFMP

I got it and I thought it was great.

I think you seriously underestimate Ron's fanclub membership.*


























Seriously=an estimated 5 or 6 members. +/-2

I don't know about gold, but some rich guy here bought up like a LOT of diamonds as an investment about 2 years ago. Like..a LOT of diamonds.

He is really rich, so maybe he knows something.

It's hard to trust anyone who makes a commision to give you good advice.

Except El Guapo of course, because he's dreamy

I thought it was funny.

I did not get it, and thought it was funny.

This website likes gold right now.

microcap speculator

Also, another writer, Lance Lewis, mentioned that GTU is a better buy than the GLD at present if you want to just buy gold on paper rather than buying the physical metal.

Most of the technical guys seem to think that gold is on the verge of breaking out to new highs.

diamonds imo

Amazingly bad investment, cultured/synthetic diamonds will kill the market.

No sane person really thinks Au is going to US$2000, the down side is really no lower than US$750, thats the price that most advanced pojects in the pipline are using as an average price.

We are at $900 gold right now it could make a run at $1000 or $1200 but that would be about it for the short term (1-6 months) downside not less than $700.

I have no problem with someone like Steve putting away 10-30 oz in a safe beposit box, but the real money is in the stocks.

I work in the world of high risk mining stocks and know many of the big players, even with the best information possible I can still get burnt big time. That's the kind of advice I won't give out to anyone not in the biz and doesn't understand the risk.

It's been pretty much covered, I'd just add:

1. Over the very long term (a decade or more), gold tends to be a hedge against inflation -- almost exactly holding it's value.

2. In the short term it can fluctuate wildly.

3. If you do want to invest in gold and you are not a millionaire insider, mutual funds is a reasonable way to do it.

4. Don't use any money you can't afford to lose.

5. If I was ever going to invest in gold, now would be the time. I'm not, though, because it's still a fools/insider game.

He used a busines to buy the diamonds and put them on display, thereby getting a tax break for the 'decor' and now has a crazy sick amount of cut and finished diamond necklaces and broaches.

I will defer to your knowledge of the value of this as an investment.

I bought my wife a 1 carat blue diamond for her engagement ring that was a real diamond but artificially turned blue. It was about $2,500 at the time. If that were a natural blue stone it would have been somewhere between 15K and 40K depending on the coloring.

you have to be ahead of a trend to make money on it people

guys that saw the economic breakdown and recession/depression coming got out of equities and into gold before anyone else because they know people will naturally flee to gold when markets are questionable

those people have already sold the gold to the "smart investors" and flush with cash twice are most probably locking up real esatate and equities at pennies on the dollar whch they will sell in the future at a profit

gold (like diamonds LOL at diamonds being bought as an investment) are valuable because people think they are, a bar of gold dooesn't pay rent or dividends, it only has capital potential, time it wrong and you get hurt, even more so if you calculate using more advanced rate of return models

neither gold or diamonds should be bought at an investment. if you want to buy it as another way to keep currency then diamonds are way better. There is a thing that comes out every (three months i think) called the RAPP sheet which lists the average price of diamonds of each grade and size in the US. You shouldn't be buying diamonds for much over what the sheet says.

Au is enjoying a bit of a run.


May 20, 2009, 1:59 p.m. EST

Gold hits two-month high on weaker dollar

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures rose Wednesday to the highest level in nearly two months, briefly topping $940 an ounce as the U.S. dollar dropped against the euro for a third straight session, increasing gold's investment appeal. Gold for June delivery rose $10.70, or 1.2%, to end at $937.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest level since March 26. It rallied to as high as $941 earlier

And the standard US$ is going down the tubes talk, the question is timing.

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1612964

Gold creeping up while the markets still rising. Could easliy break through $1000 if a pull back happens(still waiting for the pull back, up about 8% since I bought my index double short )

Go ahead and gamble against alchemy. We'll see who laughs last.

I don't believe it will happen, but it's telling that the administration is floating this out there:


http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/minewe...9&sn=Detail


Could President Obama ban U.S citizens from holding gold?
Back in 1933, at a time of economic crisis, President Roosevelt forced U.S. Citizens to sell their gold at $20 an ounce - and then subsequently revalued the metal to $35. Could President Obama, a Roosevelt disciple, have similar plans in mind.

Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted: Wednesday , 20 May 2009
LONDON -

Whether one believes in the GATA premise that the gold price is being held down by a gigantic conspiracy between the World's Central Banks, Governments and some major banking institutions or not, there is little doubt that governmental-initiated currency manipulation does occur, and if one looks at gold as money then it is logical that some degree of manipulation here also takes place at Central Bank level. Whether one can call this a global conspiracy, or part of the general process of stabilising currencies and exchange rates, depends perhaps on which side of the fence you are sitting. In a way this is similar to the terrorist/freedom fighter debate!

But, history does tell us that the US government, in the days of a fixed gold price, did intervene in a very direct manner with President F.D. Roosevelt banning the "hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates" and thus forcing US citizens to sell to Federal Reserve at $20 an ounce. Subsequently the Fed raised the price of gold to $35 an ounce.

President Obama is known to be a Roosevelt disciple and he must be well aware of what was done at the time, given the parallels of the U.S economy between the present time and the 1930s. There must be a temptation to try the same tactic, and then raise the gold price dramatically in a move which would certainly support reserves within those nations which still have major gold holdings.

Indeed, if monetary authorities worldwide sees the gold price really start to take off, this kind of process has to become even more of a temptation as a big global move into gold could exacerbate the global financial crisis in that it would show that people no longer have faith in the economic status quo (it can be argued that already they don't) and the the current crisis of confidence could be severely worsened by such a rush.

In an article published late last year, Mark Mahaffey of Hinde Capital, argued that such a possibility existed and pointed out that "the fear for anyone who is in credit is that the financial system could become geared towards negating debt which, in turn, would destroy the value of their assets. One way of bypassing this threat is to buy gold. However a general shift to gold would undermine the power of central banks and their influence on the economy."

I'm pretty sure obama would never be allowed to hold public office again if that were to happen.

Can't see another Au confiscation, the GATA guys are just slightly left of those who believe the black helicopters are coming.

But the logic behind the devaluation of paper money with all the stimulating/borowing/printing going on world wide is real.

May was a good month for gold, is it over bought?

I don't know.
What do you think is going to happen to the dollar in the next 3 years?

That's the 64 dollar question and no one really knows but the 10 year trend is down and the status of the US$ as the reserve currency of choice is in doubt.

I really don't think this is true. What is the currency of choice going to be, the Euro?

China and Japan are still buying the crap out of our treasuries, even with the low yields.

^^^^^^^^^^^



Agreed. Just because its future is dim doesn't mean that it's still not going to be the best reserve currency out there. All currencies will follow the dollar, at least for the next 5 years.

I'm thinking the dollar will fall, but will be more stable than other currencies, so gold will prob be a good investment.

No one doubted the US$ in the cold war years but now you always here talk of a "basket of currencies" being used but the Buck is the largest egg in the basket. The Euro has been a big win but the problem with Europe has always been the same thing, Russia can squash them in 100 different ways. The US has those wonderfull oceans around it but have been spending like a drunken sailor since Nixon ditched the gold standard.

In the end all paper money is only as strong as the economy/government that backs it up, how strong will any of the G-7 or G-20 economies be in 3-5 years?

If you think none then buy gold acordingly.

Top Top!

So gold has been making a move the last couple of weeks touching $1020



Can't see it going up much more short term, have unloaded 100% of my gold related stocks at this point.

Longer term I still like it as the USA has lost all control over spending and the US$ will tank at some time.

Will wait for a pull back to get in again.

This kind of BS can really ruin my week,,,,


http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21...779-951,00.html


THE International Monetary Fund will sell 403.3 tonnes of its gold reserves, worth an estimated $A15 billion, to provide loans to poor countries and shore up its finances.

While the fund's executive board said it decided on Friday to sell its stocks in a way that would not disrupt commodity markets, gold prices are expected to be hit hard.

Sign up to the PerthNow Business newsletter

Gold has been seen as a safe haven during the global economic crisis and recently breached $US1000 an ounce for the first time.

Australia is the world's fourth-largest gold miner behind China, the US and South Africa, producing 232 tonnes last year worth $8.6 billion.

When Australia sold most of its gold reserves in 1997 _ which was only 167 tonnes _ it drove the price down to a then 20-year low of just over $US250 an ounce.

The IMF sale represents an eighth of the Washington-based fund's 3217-tonne gold reserves.

The IMF said the decision was a core element of a new income model to make it less dependent on its lending revenue to cover expenses and allow it to offer favourable conditions on loans to the poorest countries.

It said in a statement that sales would be ``in a volume strictly limited to 403.3 metric tonnes, with these sales to be conducted under modalities that safeguard against disruption of the gold market''.

``The new income model is designed to provide the fund with more diverse income sources that are better aligned with the variety of functions performed by the fund, with a central component being the funding of an endowment with the profits from these limited gold sales,'' the IMF said.

The sales ``will also increase the fund's resources for lending to low-income countries'', a strategy that won board backing in July.

``I am delighted that the executive board has given its overwhelming backing to a strictly limited sale of fund gold to put the financing of the IMF on a sound long-term footing, and enable us to step up much-needed concessional lending to the poorest countries,'' IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

``These sales will be conducted in a responsible and transparent manner that avoids disruption of the gold market.''

Board approval required an 85 per cent majority of the total IMF voting power.

The US, by far the largest stakeholder, gave its green light after Congress passed legislation authorising the sale and President Barack Obama signed it into law on June 24.

The fund is required by its founding document to conduct all gold sales at market prices.

The IMF did not state the value of the gold to be sold, but based on the current bullish near-record market price for the metal it is estimated the sale would fetch $US13 billion ($A15 billion).

Under the approved plan, the IMF would offer to sell gold directly to central banks ``or other official sector holders if there were to be interest from such holders''.

A prime candidate could be China, which is sitting on the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, topping $US2 trillion, and has been seeking to diversify away from the dollar.

Perth-based Stock Analysis author Peter Strachan agreed.

``When it was announced, (the gold price) went down about $US5,'' he said.

``I think it will be under pressure and the Chinese will probably be buying it on the back foot.

``We might see it go down $US20-$30, but I think ultimately the Chinese will be looking at this as a great opportunity to get a big chunk of it.''

Email: bennettc@sundaytimes.newsltd.com.au

$1035/oz today that's an all time high.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-rise...mise-2009-10-06


NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures rose by more than 1% early on Tuesday, following a U.K.-newspaper report that Gulf oil producers, in concert with China, Russia, Japan and France, are planning to eventually end dollar-based oil pricing. The dollar came under pressure after the report, lifting dollar-denominated commodities, such as gold. In recent action, gold for December delivery gained $13, or 1.3%, to $1,031.00 an ounce.

Gold hit an all time high of $1087/oz today.

.