Gold is viewed an excellent hedge against inflation and deflation. Although gold is off its all-time record high of $1,924, the case for higher gold prices almost seems bullet proof…but how does one invest in it?Die-hard gold investors often say that the only safe gold investment is the coin you can hold in the palm of your hand…but this is not always possible or convenient for many investors. Precious metals Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) were created with this issue in mind. An ETF is basically a Mutual Fund that tracks the price ofgold. The most popular gold ETF is the SPDR Gold Trust, also known as GLD.However, buying shares in GLD is not the same as owning physical gold for the small investor.
To convert shares of GLD into actual physical gold, you must own at least 100,000 shares. Each share of GLD is equal to one-tenth of an ounce, which is the equivalent to 10,000 ounces of gold. With current prices near $1,800 per ounce, it would take aninvestment of nearly $18 million to take physical delivery of actual gold. If you’ve got that kind of money toinvest in gold, there are far better and safer gold investments…besides…GLD may not be all that it is cracked up to be. Over the last couple years there have been rumours and warnings that GLD invests in ”paper” gold rather than the physical stuff itself. The custodians of GLD have also been accused of allowing big players to obtain huge quantities of physical metal by “shorting” its shares. With these worries in mind, where does the small investor go?
Enter billionaire Canadian Eric Sprott…
Sprott is a 40 year market veteran who sticks his money where his mouth is…namely in his Sprott Physical Gold Bullion Trust, or PHYS. In 2000, he began investing in gold when the price was $265 per ounce. He declared gold “the investment of the decade”…and it certainly was! Gold made an average 17% gain during the next ten years. The goal PHYS is to provide a secure, convenient and exchange-traded investment alternative for investors interested in holding physical gold bullion, without the inconvenience of storing physical gold bullion. You can learn more at: http://www.bestgoldirainvestments.com/
Another way to invest in physical gold is to buy the publicly traded gold ETF offered by the Zürcher Kantonalbank or ZKB. The bank which is owned by the cantonal government of Zurich, trades on the Swiss stock exchange. Each share of the ZKB gold ETF (ZGLDUS.SW for pricing in U.S. dollars) will cost you one ounce of gold. It is a publicly traded ETF, so you don’t have to be a client of the bank to invest in it. ZKB is the third largest bank in Switzerland and is one of the few triple-A-rated banks in the world. It is charged by law to operate in a very safe manner, and is forbidden to make the kind of crazy derivatives investments that brought down big banks in the past.PHYS and ZKB are both excellent, safe gold investment vehicles for the global investor. These ETFs do not carry a premium or discount to the gold price, so you can be confidentinvesting in them without the downside of storing the metal yourself.
Never again do you have to worry about owning GLD!
Buy Gold Through Your IRA Account - Best Gold IRA Investments
