Still pondering this Sprott exchange for Central Gold Trust shares. Like many of you, my GTU is down, ripe for a tax loss harvest. If I exchange for PHYS, will I lose the capital losses? If not, sure would be nice to take the "free money" some of you have alluded to, then sell PHYS after 3...

Ok, I have now received my third "TIME CRITICAL - MUST RESPOND" notice from Vanguard along with another Notice from Sprott! I too like GTU and will probably stick with it (and buy more). My only reservation is giving up the "free money" eluded to earlier in this post. Sophie and ...

Thanks for the synopsis, Early Cuyler. Might make for a viable alternative or variable portfolio.

Can you please post their suggest portfolios. Why not read the book and find out for yourself?  ;) I finished the book a couple of days ago. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so ill just say it was a thought provoking read and that I highly reccommend it. Not sure why folks are so reluctant to p...

It is very difficult to talk about any of this stuff both because it CANNOT be understood intellectually, and because much of it is inherently paradoxical Ah, and one of the paradoxes may be that one who is truly enlightened would have no need or interest in saying "I am enlightened." I s...

You are describing a few nice moments.  When you can live out of that nice space 24/7 you have part of the idea. I am still skeptical that humans can be 100% "enlightened" 24/7. Some can come very close, but not 100%. Even in the words of the Buddha and Jesus (or at least the translation)...

It is very difficult to talk about any of this stuff both because it CANNOT be understood intellectually, and because much of it is inherently paradoxical Then is it real?  Or is it simply fantasy of imagination, or worse the delusions of a fractured mind? What is actually "real?" And wha...

i am not so sure "you cease to exist as an individual" is accurate, you cease to exist as an ego that sees itself as separate may be a more accurate way of saying it, of course language will never adequately describe a state of being beyond language... it at best is a sign post pointing t...

Inspiring thread! I am a materialistic addict (in therapy), and I find that different things bring me down to different degrees. The biggest offenders are those things that need to be maintained, updated/upgraded or repaired frequently. So, electronics, autos, and house/yard are the first to look at...

Taking up kite surfing.

Don't mean to "post and run," Gumby. Not ignoring you; will study your rebuttals when I get the chance this week. Thanks for putting the time into this!

The fact that it's difficult to find evidence of chronic disease 200 or 500 years ago is the evidence . Hmm. Could it be because we do not have many bodies to autopsy? We have at least one (from 3350 and 3100 B.C.), and he had atherosclerosis, bad teeth, and gallstones: http://news.sciencemag.org/s...

It is incontrovertible that adult lifespans have not increased significantly over the past 500 years. For instance, even if we look at the lives of the well-documented Founding Fathers (in this case, the 1787 delegates), we see the following life spans were recorded: Don't buy it. Lots of bias here...

Gumby wrote: On average, we only live about 7 years longer than our adult ancestors — and now we have far more "chronic" diseases.

Skeptical but open minded. You have posted in past, I believe, but can you provide incontrovertible evidence of this?

Great article that may be worthwhile for those of us interested in nutrition and health. May have been posted elsewhere, but I missed it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magaz ... ted=1&_r=0

A few days ago I did a switcheroo of SGOL for GTU when it was trading at a 5% premium, and was able to do it instantly in my Schwab 401k. With Vanguard, each transaction takes take 3 days to settle, and the opportunity would have been lost. I think same for Vanguard. Price locked in on trade date b...

Agree with Moda. Not the same instruments. Realize that you are selling at a discount, although only 2% now. Looks like CEF is 1.4% discount, so that might help when buying.

In taxable accounts, it's time to sell some physical for a tax loss harvest, buy GTU, then exchange back after 30 days and after GTU discount decreases. A win-win.

Edit: Or maybe more appropriately, a lose-win-win. 

If anyone has doubted the importance of cash in a portfolio, today may change your mind! Ordinarily, we'd be silently fretting about the sell-off in equities today, but it pales in comparison to gold. And, so far, I have not been impressed by LTTs ability to counter. I still consider them valuable b...

Faith is knowing that you can rest in peace no matter the outcome. Hope is wishing for a specific outcome which is currently unknown. Where do you fall? I'm with you in your skepticism of treasuries. That's why I have large variable portfolio deficient in LTTs and loaded up in gold.  :-\  I seemed t...

jswinner wrote: Historically, it is not falling assets that trigger the rebalance.

Damn! Having a hard time refraining from buying gold right now...

I'm hoping the PP's hedging holds up and buying popcorn. Even if the other assets do not hedge fully, this still could be a very good thing. If gold or any other asset is going to go on sale via an extreme nose dive, I'd rather it does this quickly. Then one is more likely to hit a rebalancing band...

The 17% drop in gold hasn't even fazed me and not because I have other assets gaining against it (I don't as I'm not fully invested), but thinking about it, it is because it is real. Ditto for my Florida condo's. When the real estate market tanks, at least I can go down there and run the things thr...

Either way it's a (fairly) safe bet that the PP will hold up over the long run. Depends on how one defines hold up. May not hold up nearly as well as a portfolio without gold. Or LTTs... Who really knows? In my mind, it is just more agnostic, less likely to lose a large % of assets in any dire mark...

sophie wrote: I rather like buying assets in equal proportions, as it is the most agnostic method

Less agnostic than Xan's method of buying in current proportions. Agree? As I recall, you did not look at Xan's method.