wren

I see $956.40. Impressive.

Getting in good and early with their smackdowns now. $969.70 Do the technical analysts have any particularly significant support levels which might be breached?

Blackshirts are much cooler though.

At BV the storage and insurance is only 0.12% per annum. Not much! Each time you buy or sell the commision is 0.8%. It isn't expensive if you plan to buy and hold for a while.

Thanks for posting that. As I understand it the situation is the same with BullionVault. BV say in their own documentation that they could go bankrupt but the customers - the owners - still legally own the gold which they own. Referring to an earlier post, it should be apparent that if BV's bank, which keeps the cash accounts, went bankrupt the cash might be lost, depending. But the gold belongs to the individual owners. This is the whole point of allocated gold. Today I came across a company called The Anglo Far East Bullion Company which provides bullion banking. Is anybody familiar with them? Here's their website: http://www.anglofareast.com/ While we're at it, just how many companies are there which provide services equivalent to GoldMoney and BullionVault? I'd be interested to see a comprehensive list.

Most people would rarely buy and not see it go lower at some later date - you'd have to buy at the last time your buy price was ever seen. If anybody knows how to do that consistently please PM the method to me.

This has been my inkling. And the $1000 mark is the best place to stage the battle. I wonder whether it could suck people in in the 1000 to 1200 range and a later bearish period in the summer could frighten weak holders out for good. Lots of "Gold drops below $1000" headlines might me made in the coming weeks.

Even in an economic breakdown situation (which I do not anticipate for the time being) people would want to buy and sell from each other, rather than barter, if possible. Silver coins and maybe small gold coins would be good for that. For big purchases gold coins and bars represent a lot of money. Not so long ago the coins actually were gold and silver. I favour gold and silver as an investment, as a store of value, without expecting that the financial system will break down entirely.

I can't read the whole article as I'm not a subscriber. From this summary he sounds like a gold bear who's learnt his lesson:

If you want to post a link, copy the URL of the link from the address bar. Then when you are typing your message press the little icon with a green + sign, above the box where you type the message. A window pops up. Paste in the URL and click OK. Then it wants a name which will appear as the name of the link in your message. I usually just paste in the URL if it isn't too long. Or else you can type a name. Then click OK and it's done. Is SCMP South China Morning Post? This is the business section, which article is it? http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menui...?s=idx_Business

Real gold is real money with no counterparty risk (it's not a promise to pay, unlike paper). It's global and can be bought and sold almost everywhere. Its value can't be inflated away willy-nilly by the banksters, as you have to mine it and annual production is only about 2% of the existing mined quantity. It's the ultimate form of payment, as Greenspan said when he was Chairman of the FED. Therefore, it's the ultimate money and store of value.

From CNBC 22 Jan 2008: http://www.cnbc.com/id/22781946 And welcome to the site, starterpack.

Beat me to it, I was about to post that pic.

@Steve. But is there any signal to get into paper like yen, rather than barbaric relics lying, like, in a Zurich vault, yet? P.S. The x-axis looked a bit screwy on your NZ$ v. yen graph (the last one), but maybe I'm just getting old .

The decay of fiat currencies is certainly a sight to see. But one shouldn't get too complacent as hard times are surely ahead. This is a bagpipe solo played by Gordon Walker during which to meditate the forthcoming hardships (bagpipe haters, please skip). (Oban 2006. The last peice of the medley is named John MacDonald of Glencoe, they say). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0kLt2H9pXo...feature=related

But, DrBubb, isn't it rather disingenuous to compare a decadal chart with an hourly chart? Is this the same as last time? And if so, whereabouts on the chart in terms of year-to-year correspondence would you say we are? And is there the possiblity that the timing, the magnitudes are different?

Well, sometimes if you're straight back from the pub, yes. Paper currency is going down. No need to panic, just position yourself appropriately. I should tell or hint diplomatically to family and friends also, especially if they're not broke. These things are playing out over the course of years. No need to panic, just think, assess and get informed.

Welcome, harryharhar! A lot of excitement tonight. Let's hope things hold together economically and politically.

I need liquidity, why don't they give some to me?

Link: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/go...amp;newsLang=en

Yes, this is what I was wondering. What proportion of the gold ETFs are not backed by physical? I'm worried how much the market is distorted by unbacked paper gold.

Heehee. The actor who played Scottie was a Canadian, I forget his name. Apparently he chose the Scots dialect for his character as he thought it was the most authoritative sounding dialect. Not that I speak Scots, having been born and having grown up in England, but half my family speak Scots. But Scottie can keep the paper, I won't be tricked by a canny Scotsman.

The bankers control the lawmakers. This is why I think it's for their benefit.

It's a European Union law, so it applies in the UK also. No VAT on gold bullion by law. I don't know what happens if you carry a lot of gold across a border.

Maybe you saw my earlier answer. Such a change of law could only make gold a better investment vehicle. I know of no other physical product with such an EU law. I can think of no reason other than that the rich elites were paving the way for their further enrichment (I'm a cynic but I'd rather be an epicurian).