I looked into the risks of these some time ago and finally decided to diversify by holding several ETFs instead of just one like GLD.  In fact GLD is one of the funds that made me most nervous after reading the detailed agreement. As others have pointed out, they are all "paper" gold and c...

In a shocking move, the Swiss National Bank decoupled the Franc from the Euro today (it was previously pinned at 1.20 EUR) - causing chaos in the currency markets.  The potential effects appear to be broad - impacting not only the Euro, but the Dollar, Gold, Oil, Russia, Greece, Brazil and many othe...

My first argument may have been too complex to understand so I'll try a simpler one: By the law of supply and demand when you raise the price of something (aka labor) you get less of it.  Higher wages means fewer jobs - no matter how much our political leaders and Keynesian's, Krugmans, and Pikettys...

Its a largely political move - to appeal to the Democratic base.  It ultimately hurts the same people that support it, along with small business owners. Only about 4.3% of workers make the minimum wage (95.7% make more) now, so it will not affect a huge number of workers or substantially drive price...

We all love to take our coins out and fondle them (at least I did before the horrible boating accident ;) I would stick with the major coins - in the one troy ounce size if you can afford them (or save up to buy them):   - Eagles and Maple leafs are most widely accepted in the US (US mint Buffalos t...

From the polls it appears unlikely to pass - largely because it would break the "Euro peg" as the Swiss Franc has been pegged to the Euro the last few years.  If the Swiss bank can't freely print currency they won't be able to maintain the peg and the Franc will rise quickly, hurting expor...

Nothing at all suspicious about 9,000 short contracts for gold (20x the normal volume) being dumped on the lunchtime Asian markets in a minute or two (where liquidity is thinnest from a global perspective) at the same time every other day for the last month - right?   http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2...

More hard evidence of large banks manipulating commodities -  this time from a US senate report naming JP Morgan, Goldman-Sachs and others:   http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/senate-report-criticizes-goldman-and-jpmorgan-over-their-roles-in-commodities-market/   http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2...

  Read "Gold wars" - gold is not like other commodities, it is certainly nothing like the stock market in terms of liquidity, and unfortunately is subject to manipulation in the futures market by major banks and even central banks.  The banks would not be subject to prosecution and settlem...

I'm 5% in planetary alignment futures I've gone short on "planetary alignment futures" and long on "stupidity" and "government growth" - I'm thinking both of those are going to pay off. Seriously - the PP seems to be doing just fine - I can even live with the slight dr...

Why are you repeating these conspiracy theories? Sorry - did not mean to muddy up the discussion with the presentation of facts.  UBS is just one of many - but today we hear from Swiss Government regulators: Switzerland's financial watchdog said on Wednesday it had found a "clear attempt"...

For those of you who believe gold market manipulation does not exist - UBS (formerly Swiss bank) agreed to settle allegations over its gold trading today: UBS is to settle allegations of misconduct at its precious metals trading business alongside a planned agreement between UK and US authorities an...

Stocks and bonds will always go up, and gold will always go down...until they don't!

I don't see anything wrong with it, and I have some IRA money in gold ETFs.  As Barrett pointed out there may be a tax advantage (one way or the other) to holding it in a taxable account, but that depends heavily on your current tax rate, interest rates, whether gold rises significantly before retir...

I too am having fun watching the muppets panic today.  It almost makes up for the dismal performance we had last year.  1500 points lost on the Dow in less than a week, and the PP is up.

Can't wait until the 3pm hour when the margin calls come due - need to make some popcorn to watch this part...

If we cannot depend on gold as an inflation hedge, then what is the alternative? Gold should rise when the future of the worlds reserve currency is of concern. This generally occurs in a time of high inflation, right? I don't know what a better inflation hedge would be.  One interesting exercise I ...

This is just my opinion (which is worth what you paid for it), but I believe there are a few key points with gold that remain unchanged over the last few thousand years:   - Gold is a good store of value - it may not grow much but it does maintains its value over time   - Gold is not well correlated...

The short answer is that the "spot price" is set in the futures market.  Basically you take the "future" price for gold and discount it by the "risk free" rate (which happens to be near zero at the moment) to come up with today's price.  Since gold is traded around the ...

Dollar started dumping rapidly this afternoon after the Fed said it was "worried" about a strong dollar.  They can't allow deflation (a strong dollar) to continue as it would hurt major debtors like the US government and many debt ridden consumers, not to mention it could pop the bond and ...

I would personally (lacking more information) be tempted to take out a mortgage for the following reasons:   - A 30 year mortgage here in the US runs 4.3% (roughly), while the PP average return is higher   - Interest rates are near historic lows, and likely to rise, so that makes your relatively che...

So they can manipulate the price of gold of course!

Just kidding...sort of...

I know Silver is not part of the PP plan, but with the shiny stuff hitting a four year low, I'm wondering if adding a few coins to the safety deposit box might be a good idea?

Thoughts?

I'm of the opinion that if the bond/stock bubble actually pops, we could see deflation in all assets (including gold) in the short term as the big investors move to cover their bets.  This would only happen if the correction was large enough to force a cascade of margin calls and covering of "d...

Yes - the PP is the worst possible portfolio, except for all the rest... I think the stock and bond markets are overdue for an adjustment, but I've felt that way for the last two years. I think one problem is that anyone who seriously might invest in a portfolio with 25% gold and 25% cash is not an ...

I think you are all way too skittish.  My PP is up about 7% this year, versus about 2.5% for the DOW and just over 7% for the S&P 500.  The PP has a fraction of the volatility of the other two as well.  I think that is very respectable. Yes, the PP went down a bit in the last few weeks, but a 2%...