What you think... Is Gold a good investment?

[Guest Yaya]

Am here in Thailand and looking at the gold market as a possible investment. Just returned from the states where some of the financial talking heads are saying that gold can hit $2,000 or $3,000 per ounce in the not too distant future.

 

Anyone have any advice, opinions, insights, experiences?

 

EFT's? Gold bars? Jewelery? Coins? Are all gold shops the same in this regard?

 

 

 

Of course, to paraphrase Harry Truman: if you took all the economists in the world and laid them end to end, they ALL would point in a different direction.

[Guest Astrrro]

I don't like gold. You can't live in it, eat it.or fcuk it!

 

So I am shorting gold, there are ETNs where you can short gold as well as ETFs where you can take a long position.

 

My choice to hedge currency debasement is agricultural commodities. You can do so with DBA, an ETF.

 

If you want to go long gold, oil, and agriculture , I think PCRIX is the ebst way to do so.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I remember way back when gold was going crazy and was forecast to continue rising. My brother invested in it. Not long afterward, the gold market crashed and he lost his shirt.

[kokopelli]

I have invested in US gold coins over the past 30 + years and never lost money. Sometimes broke even, sometimes made money. The market is volatile! If price decreases significantly then a good idea to buy. My fav is US $50 gold coins rather then older numismatic $20 Libertys and Eagles.

My last investment was at $500/oz and now the price is up to about $1300/1400/ oz. Do I sell or hold? Don't know, but likely will hold.

One nice thing is that there is no tax on your gain when selling. At least there is no reporting with the dealer I buy/sell with.

[Guest]

Kokopelli might have had the good judgement not to lose money on gold in the last 20 years, but there have been plenty of falls in the price of the stuff during that time.

e.g.

End of 1990: $386.20

End of 2000: $272.65

With a hell of a lot of fluctuation in between.

 

If you buy in at too high a price, you might lose money quite badly when it falls. Gold already looks quite expensive to me, but I do know that I don't know enough about speculation in commodity prices to be sure.

 

On the other hand, the US & UK have been printing money at quite a rate. This normally leads to inflation, so gold is a good hedge against that.

 

The net result is I have nothing whatsoever invested in gold, as I cannot decide if it's a good investment at current prices.

What we can do in the 21st century is buy shares in companies based in many parts of the globe. That should provide some protection against the risk of inflation in one or two western countries.

Also, it's possible to value those companies based on profits & assets, rather than a speculation, which is what buying gold at the current prices seems to be. Finally, you get dividends off shares.

[kokopelli]

Kokopelli might have had the good judgement not to lose money on gold in the last 20 years, but there have been plenty of falls in the price of the stuff during that time.

 

Unfortunately Koko has poor judgement! I first bought gold in the 70s at $190 USD/oz and sold at less then $300. Within one year the price went up to about $1000! Only advice I have is to buy when down and hold onto it.

[Guest]

Only advice I have is to buy when down and hold onto it.

 

I certainly agree with the principle of buying when down. Might be an idea to sell when up, as it doesn't bring in any dividend income.

 

Gold isn't exactly down at the moment. It's quite expensive in historical terms.

Of course it might go higher if the US ends up with an inflation problem.

[kokopelli]

Gold isn't exactly down at the moment. It's quite expensive in historical terms.

Of course it might go higher if the US ends up with an inflation problem.

 

During the past week gold dropped by $100 USD but seems to be rebounding. Wait and see.

[Guest jomtien]

Every boy I've met here has been telling me to invest in gold for years