Gold mutual funds or gold bullion?

[IndyOp]

That's the question.

Gold mutual funds hold stock in Canada, UK, Autralia, and South African primarily, so anything outside the US should be good as the $ drops.

I really don't want to bury gold or silver coins in my backyard or keep them in my home in a safe -- can I buy gold (as a commodity) and have someone else hold it?

I found one mutual fund that does hold some gold bullion - but am wondering what I am missing. (...and since I am brand new to this, I could be missing a lot).

:(

[Greyhound]

1. You can, but many have been burned in the past.

There was a huge fund in the early 80's that took advantage of the last bull market (can't remember the name off-hand, but it's well documented) that got thousands of people to "buy" millions of $ in gold to be stored in their vaults. Guess what? they didn't get the gold, they just took the $$$ and ran.

Why are you concerned about holding it yourself? How many times have you been burglarized in the past? Don't you have insurance?

Mutual funds can be good, but that depends on the managers doing their jobs well and keeping their fees down, neither or which is common today.

[nankerphelge]

2. stock in mining companies...

check out goldcorp.

[IndyOp]

7. The mutual funds that i am holding have stock in mining companies...

Any comments you have about these will be appreciated...

INIVX VAN ECK FDS INTL INVS FD
Trailing Returns YTD 52.18%
INIVX Morningstar

LEXMX ING MUT FDS PRECIOUS METALS FD CL A
Trailing Returns YTD 45.17%
LEXMX Morningstar

OPGSX OPPENHEIMER GOLD & SPL MINER SH BEN INT
Trailing Returns YTD 52.55%
OPGSX Morningstar

TGLDX TOCQUEVILLE TR GOLD FD
Trailing Returns YTD 47.72%
TGLDX Morningstar

[Monk06]

14. Mutual Funds invest on your behalf. They decide when to sell...

Add a few Junior Exploration companies to your portfolio.
Pick solid area plays.
Red Lake and Nevada are safe bets for under priced juniors.

Look at the six month charts for Rubicon and Red Star.

The prices for well funded juniors with advanced projects
are just beginning to rise.

Look where Coral Gold has gone in the last year. The upside
in a good junior can be impressive in the short term given
the price of gold.

[Joe for Clark]

3. I'd really stay away from funds on this.

You can hold a certificate of deposit on gold without taking delivery.

If you can hold the actual bullion, I'd do that - really a pound of gold is about 10K now. Do you have a safety deposit box??

Funds can be really treacherous. You can buy the gold tracking stock GLD and it trades for cash value, you might want to look at that if you don't want the physical gold around.

Joe

[salinen]

4. Yep

Safety deposit box.

[IndyOp]

12. Thank you - I think I am starting to understand the options better...

Mutual Funds - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=114&topic_id=20672&mesg_id=20679"> I am holding these 4 now - any comments would be appreciated.


Tracks price of gold:
Stocks - StreetTracks Gold Shares GLD
Exchange-traded funds - iShares COMEX Gold Trust IAU

CDs - Everbank Metals Select <www.everbank.com>

Bullion (held)- Everbank Metals Select <www.everbank.com>
Bullion (delivered)- Everbank Metals Select, Gold Dealer, Bullion Select


I can't afford the initial levels for the CDs, so that is out.

[El Supremo]

5. iShares COMEX Gold Trust

That's what I have. So far, so good.

http://www.nymex.com/GC_fund.aspx

[IndyOp]

8. In really simple words - What is the diff between an ETF and

a mutual fund? How long have you been holding it? Has it tracked the price of gold?

Thanks.

[Joe for Clark]

9. A tracking fund - trades in cash prices daily.

They are ok. There are funds that buy and sell in periods more than daily - not ok.

You can get stuck with capital gains that appear only on paper, and real losses.

BUY the physical gold and put it in your mattress, for christ sake. Best reason to buy gold is that there is a shortage of the physical metal. SO hold the actual metal - no mystery.

[Nite Owl]

10. An ETF or Exchange Traded Fund

is a basket of stocks that are traded as a unit. They can be bought and sold as you would any security, they have options and can be shorted. A mutual fund is traded by a manager, you never know just what you have at any particular point as the manager is in charge of that and there are usually some sort of fee structure as opposed to an upfront broker commission as with a stock.

http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/investmentproducts.asp
http://finance.yahoo.com/etf

In regard to the gold you can buy the bullion and have it held. I'm sure there are several places that do this but I know that www.everbank.com does. You can I think mix your holdings with other metals like silver. They also have CD's that are in gold. Your principle is safe but what you make, the dividend is dependent on the rise and fall of the metal. I think it was for 5yrs but go there and check it out. I have a checking account with them for and they have been very good.

[IndyOp]

11. Thank you! Everbank looks interesting... (n/t)

:hi:

[Joe for Clark]

13. You should be very careful here.

If you really don't know what your doing - why don't you think twice and then see how this goes??

And ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS!!!

Gold is pretty high right now, you really want to buy here??

Joe

[patrice]

6. Silver.