I Am Going To Add Some Hard Gold To My Portfolio, Any Advice Out There

[fmdog44]

I am going to buy some gold, not coins just to have it, don't care it goes up or down. Any tricks in buying metals? It won't even amount to 1% of my portfolio.

 

[Don M.]

I don't own any gold, but I did buy a fair amount of Silver bullion back around 2001, when it went down to about $5 an ounce. Now that Silver is bouncing around $15/oz., I figure that that money spent has at least kept up with inflation. I just bought it as a hedge against the day when our governments stupid mismanagement of its finances makes the dollar worth a fraction of its present value. The way I see it, a balanced portfolio should contain some precious metals.
As for "tricks" in buying metals, I just went to a gold/silver dealer, and paid that days "spot" price.

 

[KingsX]

.

Why not gold coins?

I would think that coins would be easier to buy, hold and sell than bullion.

 

[Aunt Bea]

.

Why not gold coins?

I would think that coins would be easier to buy, hold and sell than bullion.

I don't own any gold and have no desire to but I agree why not gold coins they are quick/easy to buy and quick/easy to sell.

I suppose you could play it a little differently and invest in a few rare coins made from gold. The value of high-quality uncirculated antique gold coins might rise faster than the gold market and if they don't you will always have the scrap value of the gold.

Good luck and please let us know what you decide to do.

 

[mathjak107]

i own GLD . it is the only way i would own gold . i don't buy it for some zombie eclipse moment . i buy it because it tends to have a positive real return 98% of the time in recessions .

but in order to do what it needs to do to stabilize a portfolio you need to own enough of it or it is like peeing in the ocean . my strategy uses about 15-17% gold .

 

[rkunsaw]

fmdog44 said he just wanted a small amount, not trying to make a fortune from it.

I'm sure you can buy it in many sizes of bars as well as coins. Check with several pawn shops as well as dealers wo advertise on tv and in magazines.

 

[mathjak107]

keep in mind you need a place to safely store it .

local places are notorious for giving you far less than they are worth when you sell

some cities charge sales tax on gold coins , nyc used to .

there are a lot of fake coins out there .

 

[fmdog44]

.

Why not gold coins?

I would think that coins would be easier to buy, hold and sell than bullion.

Again, I know next to nothing when it comes to choosing which/what to buy so I lean toward bullion knowing coin prices fluctuate and I doubt if a few coins purchased in 2018 will grow exponentially in the next ten years. It is only a place to put some cash as opposed to another CD. Why would bullion be hard to sell?

 

[mathjak107]

because you need to have is assayed to make sure it is real and it is costly , no dealer just buys a chunk of bullion on your say so .

, local dealers do not pay anywhere near spot and to ship it can be costly for freight and insurance . personally i see no reason to own gold physically unless i was wearing it .

in fact without a strategy for it in your investing , just buying it randomly in a tiny quantity makes little sense to me. i own gld the gold etf and it is roughly 17% of the portfolio but it plays a very strategic role .

i never see the point in just buying little meaningless bits and pieces of assets randomly that do not work in conjunction with the other pieces of a portfolio so the sum is greater than each part individually . if anyone does not understand what i mean by the assets should complement and work in conjunction with each other i will explain .

 

[fmdog44]

because you need to have is assayed to make sure it is real and it is costly , no dealer just buys a chunk of bullion on your say so .

, local dealers do not pay anywhere near spot and to ship it can be costly for freight and insurance . personally i see no reason to own gold physically unless i was wearing it .
in fact without a strategy for it in your investing , just buying it randomly in a tiny quantity makes little sense to me. i own gld the gold etf and it is roughly 17% of the portfolio but it plays a very strategic role .

i never see the point in just buying little meaningless bits and pieces of assets randomly that do not work in conjunction with the other pieces of a portfolio so the sum is greater than each part individually . if anyone does not understand what i mean by the assets should complement and work in conjunction with each other i will explain .

According to all takes on a gold ETF that is the last thing you should do especially if it is a mining fund. To me again this is not a strategy purchase at all, just funny money.

 

[mathjak107]

GLD IS ONLY GOLD BULLION . they are the largest in the world in gold .

i would never ever buy mining shares as a proxy for gold . they are stocks first and are effected by strikes , profits , management and political actions . in 2008 gold was up while mining stocks got clobbered . if i was buying gold i would never buy bullion because it is hard to sell and expensive to sell because you need to pay to have that lump tested . coins are the best way . better check on sales tax too . i got hit for sales tax back in the 1990's when i bought gold eagles from fidelity and took possession . fidelity has offices in ny so sales tax was charged .

i would never take possession again . i had to insure them and pay to store them . many banks no longer let you keep them in a safe deposit box . chase specifically bans cash and gold from their boxes now .

i have been using GLD through the worst of times including 2008 and they are pretty rock solid . far more stable than i am .

 

[mathjak107]

even with gold on everyone's hate list right now , investors have no problem keeping 31 BILLION dollars in GLD . it is actually not an etf but a trust .

[FONT=&quot]When you buy GLD shares, you’re buying an ownership interest in a trust, and the sole asset of that trust is physical allocated gold bullion bars. The individual investor does not own the gold that backs the trust, any more than an investor in GM owns a car or an investor in Apple owns an iPhone.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]What the investor in GLD owns is an asset that tracks movements in the gold price, minus the very small costs of administering the trust. For many investors, buying GLD shares is the most cost-effective method of gaining exposure to the gold price.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]When one of the authorized participants (AP)—the broker-dealers that make a market in GLD shares—receives an order to buy GLD on behalf of a customer, he will typically buy the relevant GLD shares on the New York Stock Exchange and fill the customer’s order.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If the AP needs to create new GLD shares, he buys an equivalent quantity of gold bullion, arranges to take delivery of that gold at the HSBC vault in London, and transfers ownership of the gold to the GLD Trust. The GLD custodian deposits the new gold into the trust’s allocated account, and the GLD trustee instructs Depository Trust Co. to create the appropriate number of new GLD shares and issue them to the AP.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]No cash changes hands, apart from the small creation fee the AP has to submit with his order. None of the organizations responsible for administering the GLD Trust has to buy gold at any time, and the gold backing GLD shares is not subject to any derivative transactions, nor is it encumbered in any way.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]GLD’s gold is held in an allocated account, and it is not lent out or placed on deposit at any time. In fact, because it’s held in an allocated account, the gold backing GLD does not appear on the books of the custodian at all—it is at all times the unencumbered property of the GLD Trust.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[/FONT]

 

[Aunt Bea]

Again, I know next to nothing when it comes to choosing which/what to buy so I lean toward bullion knowing coin prices fluctuate and I doubt if a few coins purchased in 2018 will grow exponentially in the next ten years. It is only a place to put some cash as opposed to another CD. Why would bullion be hard to sell?

That's why I don't own any, LOL!!!

"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."- Warren Buffet

 

[fmdog44]

Gold has not moved much in recent years and I love the TV ads saying it could be ready for an upward move. A lot of things could be ready for something. What a snafu.

 

[treeguy64]

You are goofy to buy gold coins, unless you just want the fun of holding onto them. You will not make any money on them, unless you're moving them in quantity. I have a gold coin that I like flipping in my hand. "Call it!" Yeah, buy GLD if you think gold is the way to go.

 

[mathjak107]

gold is the dollars competitor . it moves opposite the dollar . unless there is a shock to the world like the night trump won and markets plunged 1000 points and gold soared 60 bucks an ounce ,gold should do nothing when the dollar is strong like it has been .
.
the 2,000's saw nice gains in gold when the dollar was weak .

but gold also has a unique attribute in a portfolio .

98% of every downturn had gold produce a positive real return . that made equities recovery so much faster in portfolio's with a big enough position .

rebalancing gold is a very important part of any strategy so you are always adding more when the dollar is strong like now.

as the dollar weakens gold can add gains very quickly, almost to quickly as 5% in a day is not uncommon , so if you think you are going to wait for clear signs the dollar is weakening you will likely miss the juiciest gains .

but if you are going to dabble with just tiny bits and no strategy for rebalancing and buying more as the price falls you are likely wasting your time and money .

that is not to say you can't actively trade gold even in a flat market . i traded gld 31x last year netting 30k in profits just waiting for a day the dollar weakened and selling . 30x i did that .

do you know if you bought gold at 850 in the 1980's at the worst possible time and also bought equal amounts of the s&p index on the same day , over the decades the rebalancing actually had the gold worth more than the stocks . so using gold within a portfolio strategy is key

 

[fmdog44]

You are goofy to buy gold coins, unless you just want the fun of holding onto them. You will not make any money on them, unless you're moving them in quantity. I have a gold coin that I like flipping in my hand. "Call it!" Yeah, buy GLD if you think gold is the way to go.

You need to check the performance numbers on GLD. my recommendation is AVOID. I am not looking to profit from this idea of buying hard gold and probably won't buy it so I don't have to worry about where I hid it!! My situation is I don't need any of my investments to rocket and if they flat line that is fine too. I will not outlive my money and that is the bottom line for investing.

 

[mathjak107]

You need to check the performance numbers on GLD. my recommendation is AVOID. I am not looking to profit from this idea of buying hard gold and probably won't buy it so I don't have to worry about where I hid it!! My situation is I don't need any of my investments to rocket and if they flat line that is fine too. I will not outlive my money and that is the bottom line for investing.

like cherry picking equity returns , gold returns have been very good through periods of weak dollars just like returns are very good for stocks through times of prosperity. We tend to run longer prosperity time frames historically. But we are well in to the years for this old bull plus the uncertainty of all these things trump is doing.

it would not surprise me if gold ends up with nice gains over the next year

 

[OneEyedDiva]

I looked into buying gold a few times and decided against it each time for various reasons. Still I've read it's not a bad idea to have a little gold in one's portfolio. If you're not buying coins, in what form would you acquire the gold?

 

[mathjak107]

I only buy it through gld. No other way anymore

 

[fmdog44]

I looked into buying gold a few times and decided against it each time for various reasons. Still I've read it's not a bad idea to have a little gold in one's portfolio. If you're not buying coins, in what form would you acquire the gold?

boullion measured in ounces or grams see below:

[FONT=&quot]Each of the individual 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bars in this listing ships to you inside of a Certi-Lock Assay card. Certi-Lock technology is an industry-leading assay card format that offers investors the highest level of confidence when buying gold or silver. The Certi-Lock assay card packaging includes an interactive verification system for precious metals that enables buyers to authenticate purchases on their own at any time.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The Certi-Lock technology is accessible through free mobile apps available to both iPhone and Android users which allows you to simply scan the encrypted barcode found on the obverse side of the assay card and see photos of the 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bar as it was packaged inside of the assay card after production.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Included with the Certi-Lock assay cards are tamper-evident features such as a custom holographic and synthetic DNA which alert you immediately if the bars packaging has been tampered with. These 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bars include a unique serial number on the bar and the assay card, along with weight and assayer information on the card.[/FONT]

 

[fmdog44]

because you need to have is assayed to make sure it is real and it is costly , no dealer just buys a chunk of bullion on your say so .

, local dealers do not pay anywhere near spot and to ship it can be costly for freight and insurance . personally i see no reason to own gold physically unless i was wearing it .


in fact without a strategy for it in your investing , just buying it randomly in a tiny quantity makes little sense to me. i own gld the gold etf and it is roughly 17% of the portfolio but it plays a very strategic role .

i never see the point in just buying little meaningless bits and pieces of assets randomly that do not work in conjunction with the other pieces of a portfolio so the sum is greater than each part individually . if anyone does not understand what i mean by the assets should complement and work in conjunction with each other i will explain .

[FONT=&quot]Each of the individual 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bars in this listing ships to you inside of a Certi-Lock Assay card. Certi-Lock technology is an industry-leading assay card format that offers investors the highest level of confidence when buying gold or silver. The Certi-Lock assay card packaging includes an interactive verification system for precious metals that enables buyers to authenticate purchases on their own at any time.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The Certi-Lock technology is accessible through free mobile apps available to both iPhone and Android users which allows you to simply scan the encrypted barcode found on the obverse side of the assay card and see photos of the 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bar as it was packaged inside of the assay card after production.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Included with the Certi-Lock assay cards are tamper-evident features such as a custom holographic and synthetic DNA which alert you immediately if the bars packaging has been tampered with. These 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bars include a unique serial number on the bar and the assay card, along with weight and assayer information on the card.[/FONT]

 

[Big Horn]

I've been very pleased with gold coins as an investment vehicle. Since 1975 it has been possible to use them as a permanent long position along with put options to both ride out bumps as well as take advantage of bear markets, particularly breaking bubbles. I have, in fact, made more money as a bear than as a bull. While it would be possible to do this without physicals, I like to have the underlying physical gold as a safety net.

Gold coins with a small numismatic premium have a potential for a dramatic increase. An outstanding example is the Type I Liberty Double Eagle. Fifty years ago common dates of all three types sold for about the same, but the situation is far different today. My first gold coin was a Christmas gift from my mother in 1952. I still have that coin. I've never sold a gold coin, but I have continually used them as an investment vehicle since the dissolution of the Bretton Woods Agreement. The subsequent restoration of Americans' right to own gold opened a plethora of additional investment vehicles.

Gold is more than an investment; it's a way of life. I've had gold mining stocks, prospected for gold, collected mining antiques, and looked for lost mines. I even had a FIL who was a gold bug. He taught his daughter well. :love_heart:

I don't limit my investments to gold or metals in general, but gold will always be a part of my portfolio.

 

[mathjak107]

I remember back in the 1980’s I used to get these gold bug newsletters. Boy I hope these guys did not actually believe their own bull about the dollars demise back then. Following their advice would have left me a whole lot poorer.

First rule use of investing is never fall in love with any investment . It is strictly business and it has to make sense.

If you bought an ounce of gold back in the mid 1970’s on the first day gold bullion was legal to own here and bought a 3 month t-bill on the same day of equal value and just kept rolling it over , today that t-bill is worth more than that gold is.

so having a strategy and use for that gold in a portfolio can be important . Unless you are going to be a trader and trade that gold regularly a t-bill may pan out better if you are looking to make money.

there are quite a few portfolios that use gold that do well but they all depend on rebalancing the gold position when gold is down.

gold is not about time in the markets making everything grow nicely like stocks. Gold is all about timing the markets and constantly taking profits when it is up and adding more when it is down . If you are not going to do that and are just buying it on a whim then you are speculating , not investing . Personally I rather speculate in Vegas and get dinner and a show.

i added a very heavy gold position over the last month but it works in conjunction with an equal amount of long term treasuries , equities and a cash position that acts as a stock option to buy stocks at lower prices but with no expiration date.

whenever I am nervous about things in this old bull that is my go to portfolio since it profits up or down

 

[OneEyedDiva]

boullion measured in ounces or grams see below:

Each of the individual 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bars in this listing ships to you inside of a Certi-Lock Assay card. Certi-Lock technology is an industry-leading assay card format that offers investors the highest level of confidence when buying gold or silver. The Certi-Lock assay card packaging includes an interactive verification system for precious metals that enables buyers to authenticate purchases on their own at any time.
The Certi-Lock technology is accessible through free mobile apps available to both iPhone and Android users which allows you to simply scan the encrypted barcode found on the obverse side of the assay card and see photos of the 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bar as it was packaged inside of the assay card after production.
Included with the Certi-Lock assay cards are tamper-evident features such as a custom holographic and synthetic DNA which alert you immediately if the bars packaging has been tampered with. These 1 oz Scottsdale Gold Bars include a unique serial number on the bar and the assay card, along with weight and assayer information on the card.

The tamper evident features are cool. I always wondered how people knew if they were getting the real thing; that was a concern when I considered buying. If you decided to sell, how would you unload the bullion....would you go through the same vendor you bought from?