Gold Mutual Funds

Discussion of the Gold portion of the Permanent Portfolio

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rhmetz
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Gold Mutual Funds

Post by rhmetz » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:42 am

Does anyone hold any of the gold portion of their pp in mutual funds as opposed to etfs?
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MediumTex
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Re: Gold Mutual Funds

Post by MediumTex » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:47 am

Other than PRPFX, what options are there in the mutual fund space?
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clacy
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Re: Gold Mutual Funds

Post by clacy » Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:04 am

There are a number of them, but in my research a couple of years ago, most were load funds, which I am not a big fan of. 

Here is a list, many of which I'm guessing you'll find, are "Precious Metal Funds" that hold gold in addition to silver, and other metals.

http://www.preciousmetalinvestment.com/ ... ual-funds/
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Tortoise
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Re: Gold Mutual Funds

Post by Tortoise » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:41 pm

Most (if not all) gold mutual funds invest in gold mining stocks, not gold bullion itself.  For investing in gold bullion, buy one of the gold ETFs--or, even better, the physical metal itself.

There are a number of reasons why gold mining stocks should not be part of the gold portion of one's PP.  Harry Browne discussed them in some of his writings.
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Re: Gold Mutual Funds

Post by MediumTex » Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:05 am

Tortoise,

I agree completely.

I thought we were talking about a mutual fund that holds only bullion.
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rhmetz
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Re: Gold Mutual Funds

Post by rhmetz » Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:13 am

OK, I guess I should have done a little homework regarding mutual funds not holding gold itself.  I just want to add that I started my pp about 6 wks ago and hold IAU for my gold portion. Is it beneficial to spread the gold holding between a couple of the etfs or is just one sufficient?
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Re: Gold Mutual Funds

Post by MediumTex » Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:40 am

rhmetz wrote: Is it beneficial to spread the gold holding between a couple of the etfs or is just one sufficient?
I would build your own comfort level with the overall strategy before exploring things like multiple ETFs for the gold exposure.

I know there is sometimes a tendency to try to come up with a completely perfect means of implementing the strategy, but what you are doing is probably going to work fine.

I use IAU for the ETF portion of my gold holdings.

As soon as you can, I would also try to own a little gold bullion.  It's hard to really understand gold unless you actually own some.
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Re: Gold Mutual Funds

Post by murphy_p_t » Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:17 pm

Tortoise wrote: Most (if not all) gold mutual funds invest in gold mining stocks, not gold bullion itself.  For investing in gold bullion, buy one of the gold ETFs--or, even better, the physical metal itself.

There are a number of reasons why gold mining stocks should not be part of the gold portion of one's PP.  Harry Browne discussed them in some of his writings.

HB is definitely vindicated, based on the fact that miners have been lagging the metal for some time
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