Gold!

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I’ve just finished reading How to Own the World by Andrew Craig, and he is very keen on owning precious metals, especially gold. He recommends owning physical gold via something like BullionVault rather than via an ETF or similar.

Has anyone done this, and can share their experiences? The fact that it’s outside an ISA would make CGT an issue; does BullionVault provide helpful reports to make declaring profits easy?

Also, I can’t help feeling that gold is now a missed opportunity. Looking at the all-time gold price, the pattern of the last four decades has been a surge in the seventies followed by twenty years of doldrums between 1980 and 2000, then a surge during the 2000s until 2012, and now it looks to me like it’s back in the doldrums (with lots of volatility).

Are we now approaching a post-QE era with rising interest rates and falling inflation, making gold less attractive? The latest edition of Andrew Craig’s book is now 2 years old; is his enthusiasm for gold looking a bit out-of-date?

Perhaps gold still has a place in a diversified portfolio to guard against another 2008-style equity crash. What do people think?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

CzechItOut said:

What are his reasons for not using ETFs?

He expresses concern about the amount of “theoretical” gold versus physical gold, and that a paper claim on some hypothetical gold is not as secure as, er... a paper claim on some physical gold.

trowelhead said:

Holding gold and silver was the only bit of the book i did not fully buy into.

Me too! The responses on this thread are reassuring: my scepticism is not entirely misplaced, it seems.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Monday 9th April 17:35

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

JulianPH said:

OP - I forgot to add (as no one else has done so), always believe in your soul.

As I typed the opening post of this thread, I had two things in my head. The first was indeed “always believe in your soul”, and the second was the “nugget of purest green” scene from Blackadder 2.