Wanderer

Thanks Goldfinger. Read my earlier contributions on the thread. Obviously I'm kicking myself about taking profits on this occasion so you don't need to add your boot.... I readily admit it was a mistake on this occasion. However I've been galled on recent spikes not to have taken profits and bought back in lower - like Roman's Holiday (I think) who is seeking to trade up his number of ozs. Anyway, at least my core holding is intact at BV where I'm not tempted to trade.

I went back in through proxy - Royal Gold (RGLD) shares. Glad I did given today's action. Just my luck having taken profits. But Mrs W is keen to buy a house soon (I know, I know....) and gets mad when I tell her how much money we've made when gold goes up only to admit a week later its gone back down again.... So I took some profits this time!

Hey all, This article http://www.commodityonline.com/news/China-...-14417-3-1.html made me trade back into gold a bit. Having been in Japan and seen what happens when consumers start looking to gold, one can only imagine the impact if the volume of Chinese consumers began to see gold as a store of value. Wanderer

Hey all, This article http://www.commodityonline.com/news/China-...-14417-3-1.html made me trade back into gold a bit. Having been in Japan and seen what happens when consumers start looking to gold, one can only imagine the impact if the volume of Chinese consumers began to see gold as a store of value. Wanderer

Just took some profits with 1/3 of my stash at 610. I'm in a position where I may need actual pounds (I know.....) soon so didn't want to miss out like the last time I thought about selling, didn't, and lost out on a chance to buy in 10% lower. Feel free to hurl bricks etc. Just posting a slightly different view to stimulate debate. (FYI - my stash is 1/3 in ETFs and 2/3 in BV - just sold the entire ETF portion)

Ouch. Gold getting poleaxed in pounds today. Yikes. Down 20 quid or so. Just been to Bullionvault. Now I'm a BV fan, but I think interviews like this one: http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/gold_us_default_122920081 with Bob Moriarty do them no favours. Bob suggests the USA is about to break down into warring feudal statelets in one sentence and then suggests people invest in gold mining stocks in the next sentence. If the USA has fallen apart and the government failed, who on earth is going to be in a position to defend property rights relating to stocks traded on an electronic exchange?! Bob is fairly apocalyptic in this article and, I think, does himself no favours. He is pretty specific about timelines and is going to look pretty stupid if it doesn't pan out like he says (and I can't believe it will - the US will inflate rather than default on bonds, surely? - that is the prerogative of the reserve currency nation...)

Thanks, we are talking paper gold. I've allocated and reserved physical elsewhere, but I've a sum of ETF gold that is more 'liquid'. I sold it all and then bought it back later in the day, making enough money to pay for quite a nice family Christmas.... I won't be making a habit of it though....

Time to take some profits in Sterling gold?

Hey, Warpig, don't worry so much about being 11th hour. Some of us who got into Silver etc. at the 9th or 10th hour are now nursing big losses! Silver and silver miners e.g. SLW have scope for considerable growth in my view. Gold has a way to go still, although I'm fighting the temptation to take short term profits with Gold at 550 an ounce. Several people on this forum think Oil is due a bounce. If you feel you are late to the party, you might want to look at gold and silver stocks rather than bullion itself, as these have more scope than the underlying metal for growth (think of them as a leveraged play in many cases). If it helps you know how othersw are spread, I'm 58% gold (some allocated and reserved in my name, others in ETFs - more liquid), 5% silver, 6% silver stocks, 5% oil, 5% UK stocks in a managed fund, a few odds and sods e.g. Premium bonds, and 20% cash of which some is in Euros. I'm now trying to thin down my cash and looking to put more in oil or stocks. Much of my portfolio 'evolved' rather than grew to a planned strategy. Now that I'm largely profitably invested, I want to more actively plan where my portfolio will be in a few months time and a few years' time. Otherwise I risk it will simply continue 'evolving' as before, which wasn't maximising profits.

A sort of storage - store it in a human till you need it.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/37...-footsteps.html

Hmm. As someone quite keen on a MAJOR correction in the housing market, I was alarmed to see this story about the return of (very cheap looking) 90% mortgages. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/dec/0...tgages-property I know many on here will be pleased to see this! I wonder how long it will last and whether this is a 'dead-cat' bounce in their availability or whether the banks are accurately assessing prices won't fall massively further from here? Or whether it is just a 'teaser' with only a small amount of funding available and most people being herded into more expensive mortgages?

Hi, This story seems like it has interesting potential were it to take off not just in India but elsewhere..... http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/gold_coin...count_120520083 Wanderer

I'm about 60% gold in either physical or ETFs (mix) and considering dumping the ETFs at this point, just to keep my profits, whilst they are still there.... This would leave me about 40% in - allocated physical. Views?

Dumb question: is anyone able to point me to a noddy guide to the interpretation of charts such as CGNAO's? Those little bar things on each day in te middle segment and the top and bottom segment graphs?

G'day, Several little point-ettes: *** I wouldn't be too concerned about someone taking gold out from BV - even 60kg. This shows the system is working. If they are taking it out they are not selling it through the BV market. This would imply one of several possibilities: *either, someone is concerned about the ViaMat vault and thinks that their own safe/mattress/hole in the garden is safer (unlikely); *or, they want to take delivery of the bullion to sell to some dodgy geezer (money laundering?); *or, they want to take delivery of the metal to melt it down into little rounds etc. (this seems somewhat unlikely as they would need to go through the assaying process to re-sell and most mints etc. would take delivery through COMEX where it is a bit cheaper; *or, someone suspects there is a genuine shortage of good-delivery LBM bars (I doubt this) and wants to have the gold in-hand; *finally, a rich conspiracy theorist (anyone on here?) has decided he wants his/her gold to disappear from the view of even the Swiss authorities. Either which way, it's not a 'sale'. Presumably if someone wanted to sell, they'd sell through BV where they'd probably get a higher price. It is, presumably, someone who wants to use their gold for something else/hide it somewhere. Gold comes in and out of BV through dealers. If the BV gold is significantly higher/lower than the market price then dealers can use the difference to arbitrage. I think this is the origin of that chunky c.22kg sale/buy that always seems to be lurking at the edges of the dealing screen if you clear away the 1g clutter (sorry, 1g owners). ***Secondly, I'm now 'all-in' gold, silver and mining stocks and won't be increasing my exposure following my latest purchase (today). Given my investment history, shrewder readers may read this as a sell signal. You have been warned. ***Thirdly, this site is getting popular. I was at a far-flung airport today and was surprised, when logging on to a public terminal to check GEI, to be 'welcomed back' 'your last visit was at 05.13'. ***Fourthly, please keep up the tone. One of the things that has been so great about this site is that the vast majority of people come constructively to share and learn from those with a wide variety of opinions. There are no 'trolls' in that sense because this site has not, thankfully, established a 'group think' yet. Lets keep it that way.

Any thoughts on this?

Pop. Back up. Phew. That said, the market is pretty thin and any one wanting to trade large quantities is going to be disappointed. This happened a month or so ago either side of some big price movement - fall or rise, I can't remember which. Rise I think.

Hi all, I'm holding onto some very badly timed purchases of silver ETFand Silver Wheaton. My ratio in value between the two is currently 10:1, although when I bought it was nearer 3:1 i.e. SW has done even worse than Silver. Assuming I still believe in the case for Silver, the courageous part of me is thinking now might be the time to flog my silver ETF and put the amount into the Silver Wheaton. Views? Wanderer

Translation: this bloke has a lot of theoretical knowlege, but doesn't know so much about how Government works. The idea you could get one government to agree to things as radical as this is comic. The notion of the G20 agreeing is very amusing.

Hi Ker, Are you Japanese by any chance? Seriously, I spent several years in Tokyo and its always nice to meet Japanese..... (why do I ask? something to do with your writing patterns). Wanderer

Hi, Can we assume that if BoE cuts interest rates again soon (in response to the evidence that we are now in recession in the UK) that savers will start casting around for somewhere else robust to put their cash given that returns on cash in the banks will be becoming fairly derisory soon? Any evidence this might be gold? W

Johan vds, I fully agree. Having worked in Govt. news for a while, I do find the idea that the 'Men in Grey Suits' can set the news agenda to this level absolutely laughable. [Either that or myself and all I worked with were news muppets whilst the 'real' Men in Grey Suits sat, unknown to me, in a secret office far closer to Downing Street than mine was (ooh, about 150 yards).] No, I reckon we are spotting a bit of mainstream interest in gold. Everyone is nervous about where to put their money. Don't forget, most people on a board like this spot every story on Gold in the mainstream press because we are looking for them (perhaps to confirm our prejudices?). Only a small percentage of people read the Guardian/listen to Radio 4 and only a smaller percentage of those would have (i) read/listened to these stories and (ii) acted upon them.

Hi all, Interesting action on gold today - and a big move down in the DOW. I have a sense (as set out by Robert Peston http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/ ) that the Dow is being sold out of fear but that Gold is being sold as certain investors try to free up funds to meet payments on CDS due as a result of Lehmans inc etc (due, apparently, in the next few weeks) - in much the same way as Lehmans itself was rumoured to have dumped a big position in gold before its' own demise. If the reports about rapidly increasing 'little guy' demand for gold etc. are true then presumably each of these waves involves gold being transferred from big investors (and possibly central banks if they have joined in the selling) to the 'little guy'. I'm thinking of it as pressure building up inside a tube. My current speculation is that at some point the pressure will give, gold will rise big time, bigger investors won't want to sell any more of the gold they retain and the price will shoot up. A 'trigger' (e.g. congressional failure to ratify the plan etc.) may initiate this, or it may happen of its own accord. The little guy will see the action, connect it to recent reports he's begun to hear in the mainstream media (thank you Radio 4 today, thank you Guardian) and seek to join in (too late as often usual). Until this point/in the meantime, choppiness will continue and my resolve will be tested!! (Do you see Rhodium today?!) I'm tempted to try and trade the ups and downs but fear that I'll make a hash of it is keeping me from doing so. Coming back to a previous theme, I'm still interested by the relation between 'events' and 'charts'. We all seem to agree that 'events' e.g. congress fail to ratify the bailout earlier this week, have a big impact on shares. But many here have put forward convincing chart-derived analysis - how do the two relate, since charts cannot, of course, predict 'events'....? W

Seconded Casimir, my concern about physical-at-home is how to store it with less risk than the risk of systematic financial meltdown rendering my BV 'unsafe'. P.S. I live overseas, but will move back to the UK c.2011 (hopefully in time to buy a nice pad for not that much cash). What are the legalities and practicalities of moving physical bullion across the world? I can't drive to the UK so it would need to be by plane or boat.... Not sure I want pickfords packing up my gold nor I am clear if I can take it as 'hand luggage' on the aeroplane.... Wanderer

Interesting Guardian article. But doesn't it say that the price of gold coins is CHEAPER than the price of an ounce of spot? The REVERSE of what everyone on here is suggesting? Does this mean the PAPER price is artificially inflated higher.