Different Ways to Own Gold and Precious Metals
Ways to own Gold
Should I own Gold coins or bars? Coins can be tricky if you engage in the numismatic coin trade which has less to do with the buying, holding, and trading the commodity, and more to do with the rarity of the coins. My opinion is if you can get a vintage coin close to the spot price of Gold then fine, but if not, then you need to remember that you are buying a coin filled with commissions paid to the broker. Remember you are buying precious metals because you feel the dollar’s value is diminishing and you are looking for a hedge against inflation. So don’t detract from your goals when looking at metals as an investment. Now as far as regular bullion coins and bars, I don’t feel there is any difference to be honest, at the end of the day Gold is Gold right? The only leverage legal tender coins can give you is that there is a market for particular coins and some people have a preference as to what type of coins they own as opposed to bars or generic Gold coins. Personally, I feel that if Gold goes to the levels authors such as James Turk says Gold is going to, then I don’t feel that anyone will be turning your gold away. Now there are large institutions that will sell you Gold Such as Monex, Gold Line, Merit Financial, and North West Territorial Mint. The only issues I can find with these larger institutions is there lack of ability to negotiate a fair price with there customers, and then when times get really busy they are not prepared to handle large scale volume. Such complaints have been posted as in the website monexfraud.com. Although I have never know Monex to commit fraud personally, there is a sense that they post there ads to get you in the door to buy Gold and then bait and switch you into their Atlas Trading account which uses leverage as a means to over obligate the consumer into paying interest on an over leveraged account. This was not the intention of the buyer in the first place which is why I don’t like their method of advertising. Now my feeling is that if you want to trade the commodities there are other tools to use other than a leveraged account (which is not bad if that is what you want to do), but the issue is weather or not everyone getting into the Monex Atlas accounts really know what they are getting into. If you want to trade, then trade, but if you just want to buy and hold then that should be your game. Now concerning the other dealers I mentioned, they are fine I suppose, but try getting through to Northwest Territorial Mint when it is really busy, or call Gold line without having them try to sell you rare coins instead of bullion! Remember your spreads and the commissions you pay. Now there are other ways that people buy Gold such as by using Exchange Traded Funds Gold can carry concerns about authenticity and purity, as well as storage and insurance costs. But you can shed those worries and still own a chunk of gold by investing in exchange-traded funds that make buying and selling gold bullion as easy as buying and selling stocks.
The share price of street TRACKS Gold Shares roughly tracks the price of gold and represents an investment in gold bullion. In effect you get to own gold without the hassle of storing and insuring. “With GLD, each share is priced at about one-tenth the price of gold bullion. If gold goes to $1000 an ounce, then the price of a share should be about $100,”
There are fees associated with exchange-traded funds, but they’re usually low. In addition, expect to pay a commission to your broker for each trade. But remember some very important features of the ETF derivatives and are not redeemable in Gold you have to take, ask yourself the question, if the dollar crashes do you want the US Dollar, or would you want the Gold? Also, the questions has been raised if the Comex really has the Gold on hand that GLD trades, and the fact is that GLD doesn’t carry all the Gold they are supposed they only hold about 25% of the Gold they are supposed to have on hand, the rest is most Gold paper certificates. Owning Gold this way is not Gold ownership, but if you don’t care and are only here to trade the volatility of the market then it doesn’t really matter then does it? Owning Mutual Funds, ETF’s and Gold mines is not Gold ownership, you own Gold to hedge against risk. Gold Stocks got hammered when the stock market crashed last Oct, while Gold held it’s own against all the asset classes. It is really the difference between diamonds being worth more then the ring it sits on. Mining stocks reflect the profits of the company. If it costs the company $600 an ounce to dig up gold, pay employees, gas and the like, and gold is selling at $900, their profit is $300. If the price of gold rises to $1200 their profits have doubled, so the stock is more volatile. But it works the other way, too. A drop in the price of gold could flip flop a company from one that’s profitable to one that’s bleeding. So this is a play on Stocks and not the metal itself. I recommend holding some Gold in your possession and then believe it or not, hold Gold in a country that does not have a history of Gold confiscation. Although when the U.S. Government confiscated its citizens Gold we were on a Gold Standard so in order to expand the money supply they needed more Gold then they had. So why would they need it now right? Since we no longer practice the Gold Standard they should not need our Gold correct? At the end of the day they can change the rules on us at anytime, so you should hold some Gold in Europe or Australia, both of which are regions that are friendly to Gold ownership. You can also own Gold in jewelry but this is because you like it, not as an investment. If you buy 14 karat gold, it’s less pure than investment grade. When you sell you’ll need to consider the purity of the gold and, more than likely, it will have to be refined to bring it up to investment grade. This is going to cost you money and take away from the purpose of hedging.
