ok, say I wanted to invest into gold heres a few questions:

1) What is a good minimum to invest
2) Physical gold, held gold or gold shares?
3) Are there different places to invest in gold?
4) What's good sites that are easy to buy and sell and easy to understand?
5) Is gold investing considered long term, medium or can it be short term too?

Any more idiots guide info would be grateful too!

If you go to goldmarley (find it with google) they will send you a nice little primer explaining the market and different ways of buying gold.

So far as physical versus eGold, it all depends on how much you want to actually hold it in your hand. Maybe, like me, you just like the idea of holding a selection of coins. So far as coins being an ultimate insurance in chaos, be aware that during the Depression Roosevelt made it illegal to hold gold. This might happen again. But if it gets that bad I expect you'll be prepared to do a little dealing on the side. I know I will!

If you just want to hold a position in gold, probably an allocated gold account on Bullion Vault or GoldLine is the best for the time being.

What percentage should you put in gold? Sorry, you must decide on that, depending on how you rate gold versus Swiss Francs or other hidy holes. I have frequently heard the advice that 20-30% gold in the portfolio is prudent.

The gold price is fairly high at the moment, so it may not be the best time to buy. Then again, you might totally miss the boat if you don't buy now.

That's the fun of investment!

My take is that within reason, you can't lose holding physical gold as coins, because they are beautiful in themselves, let alone any exchange value they may have. If gold price dropped by half tomorrow, personally I would not care. The long run fundamentals of gold look pretty strong to me (Swiss francs likewise).

Hope this ramble was vaguely useful.

Regards,

Malco.

2nd question...

How does one invest in swiss francs in such a way to gain maximum return - i.e. taking out as many middlemen and percentages as possible.

Before I saw your question I was going to ask exactly the same thing. My guess is it would be very hard to open a Swiss Franc Swiss bank account without having an address there. See how hard it is to open an account in this country without a UK address.

You can open a Currency Account in Swiss Francs with the Bank of Scotland, and I am in the process of doing so.

If you want a veritable Swiss bank account, surely you could go into the UBS branch in the Swiss Centre at Leicester Square and open one there? Not that I've ever tried, and I live in Edinburgh so can't check.

Failing that, CH is a nice place for a short holiday....

What annoys me is that I had a real Swiss bank account some years ago from when I worked in CH. Like an idiot, I closed it when I left. IDIOT!

By holding gold coins do you physically mean keeping them at home or are you talking about storing them in a bank ?

Just checked out there site, can't see that available, could you point me in the
direction.

Kinda looking at every option under the sun at the moment and trying to
absorb as many options as possible.

Thanks for the tip. I might give that a try.

In the experience of people i know who have opend swiss acounts (on a camping trip no less) it was very easy...

£25 quid a year charge only.

Either. Gold coins are very compact - a matchbox can hold several thousand quid. It's easy enough to secrete them where no burglar will look, or you can get a safe deposit box, or bury them in the garden. Holding gold bullion is not common so I don't think burglars are specifically on the lookout. Don't sew them into the curtains though, it's an old trick.

One day you may need to hide them from the government too!

regards, Malco

Go to:

http://www.bankofscotlandinternational.com/bosi_home.asp

and there it is.

Malco

Also take a look at:
http://www.GoldMoney.com

and dont rule out having your "Gold"`exposure through Gold stocks.
I will try to explain why I am suggesting that.

== ==

There is a problem with buying gold, that I have explained before.
Think of it as a currency, with exchange rates to other Currencies,
and the current rates are as follows:

Gold-in-Dollars: USD 438.00
Gold-in-Euros..: Eur. 360.00
Gold-in-Sterling Pds. 244.00

Now if you buy Gold at $, and the dollar weakens against gold, the Euro and against Sterling, you may think you have a profit, because the Gold-in-Dollars price has gone up. But do you really?

If your "home" currency is Sterling, and the Sterling price is now higher, your Gold has given you no Sterling profits.

I want to own Gold (or Gold shares) when the Gold prices is rising in all currencies. I we have been seeing that for a few weeks already. But I still prefer options, forwards, futures, (and shares- more about that later). You can buy these in US dollars, and if you buy them you do not come up with all the money. You typically buy "on margin". And it is as if you borrowed the dollars. This way if Gold rises in Dollars, you have a profit.

Is this clear? If not, I suggest you may want to do some more reading, before you plow alot of your savings into Gold

ANOTHER Better way of looking at the Gold/Oil relationship?



"With the notable exceptions of 1975 to 1976, 1998 to 2001, and 2004 to today, oil and gold tend to move in undeniable symmetry. While there can certainly be temporary spikes higher or lower in either commodity, over a long strategic time frame their secular trends synchronize incredibly well. Temporary anomalies in one not mirrored by the other are eventually erased as their high correlation reasserts itself.

Back in 1975 oil in today’s dollars was holding steady near $40 a barrel but gold was falling rapidly from around $700 real to just under $375 real. This anomaly caused the first great Gold/Oil Ratio extreme low, all of which are numbered in red on each chart in this essay for reference. At that low there were only three possible events that could happen to the GOR. Oil could plunge to match gold, gold could soar to match oil, or the ratio could be broken with oil and gold heading their separate ways.

How was it resolved? The chart speaks for itself. Gold rocketed from $375 in today’s dollars to nearly $1700 on a monthly basis in the greatest gold bull in modern history. Gold not only caught up with oil to preserve the GOR, but it easily blew past crude as a speculative mania seduced mainstream investors to buy more gold. Gold ultimately ran up over 1800% in nominal terms in the 1970s while oil pushed 1100%, both on monthly bases. Naturally vast fortunes were won by commodities investors of the time."

...MORE: http://www.kitco.com/ind/Hamilton/aug192005.html

Thanks for the link to the kitco.com article, drbubb: it makes a pretty seductive case for gold. I'm certainly tempted.

In your previous post you advise reading up before investing in gold: any recommendations?

Thanks

Also, would like to doa bit of number-crunching of my own: is there anywhere to get bulk historic gold rpice data (the raw numbers, rather than graphs)?

Thanks again

Doctor, you're being too clever by harf! I don't intend to plough more than a modest amount into gold - there are other commodities that probably offer greater promise. My primary concern is a way of keeping "cash" safe from escalating inflation or a deflation of the £ (virtually certain with recession and increased oil/gas imports plus weak UK manufacturing base ). Inflation we can see is just starting to be a problem as the oil crisis feeds in. Plus, most folk just haven't the slightest clue what is about to hit them, the poor s0ds.

What's your take on the Rogers International Commodity Fund?

regards,

Malco

Why has SPM jewllers stoped selling Krugerrands all of a sudden?

And why has this seller put on a buy it now price of £380???

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KRUGERRAND-1980-MINT...1QQcmdZViewItem

Where is this leading?

Can't see any reason for the hike in price, you can still buy 1Oz Kruggerrand from Goldline for £257.75. It is my undersatnding the value of Krgerrands is almost all in their bullio value so is independant of condition. Peole do appear to be bidding over the odds on Ebay.

Goldline - Bullion Coins

ebay is always a case of sitting and waiting for the ones most people miss. I've just managed to pick a full soveregn for £58.50 and a half sovereign for £26.10 - both include the cost of postage and were bought using buy-it-now. I think that's a little bit below spot (correct me if I'm wrong)

Most full sovereigns seem to go for £60+ with 3-4 postage on top.

I'm thinking of putting a bit of money into a goldmoney allocated gold account.

Are there any tax implications associated with this sort of investment?
Is goldmoney a good company to use for this?

For me physical gold in the hand bought for cash is the only way. My reason is tax. Imagine paying cgt on gains caused by the governments inflation.

Another point is if things really fall apart, and I think they could, then the govt would likely introduce a windfall profits tax on gold. Imagine you're so smug with all this gold in an ETF or allocated account with your name and number on it and the govt introduces a 90% tax on the profits. Or why not 100% tax on the profits? It would be effective confiscation.

So I reckon ETFs and allocated accounts are useless. Get physical and dont tell anybody about it.

Just to bump this up to the top of the list again.

If I was to buy £10K of allocated gold today, and sell it for say £15K at some point in the future, what are the tax implications?

Would I be right in assuming it's a capital gain and would (in this case) result in no due tax as it's less than the annual CGT allowance?

Can gains be spread over the years that the gold was held for, or do all your gains from the previous years fall into the year in which you actually realise your gain?

If I were to purchase physical gold, I would buy it through a US/Canadian account, not UK (for a start there goes stamp duty on transactions)

As the UK fiscal deficit of 3% of GDP is likely going to grow - (it is now a deep structural feature of the economy as liabilties grow.) Any downturn -

Means taxes will rise much further than the already sharp rises projected.

Along with ID cards and the government checking out your finances - gold ownership is so simple to tax by restoring VAT again. You have better trade liquidity and less chances of taxation abroad.
Its not hard to save £00's in stamp duty you would otherwise pay as well.

Surely If I own physical gold and VAT is slapped on it (after I have already bought it VAT free at this point in time) then this benefits me as I can then sell it privately for the 'VAT' premium over spot and pocket the additional 'VAT' element (as I and 99% of other private investors are not VAT registered). Look at what silver costs and trades for here (check out ebay) and compare it to the lower prices achieved abroad.

Bring on VAT on gold, and I'll be laughing!!