Gold

[SpontaneousOrder]

I didn't say it was a bad idea, there are reasons for it being quite a good idea depending upon your personal view of inflation and distortion caused by paper gold.

What I did say is that one of the reasons put forward for owning physical is societal breakdown. If it gets to the point that the monetary system has completely broken down then happening to own physical gold may not be any help at all. And in terms of real carnage could be a hindrance.

Gold has been considered money for thousands of years. At the very least someone is more likely to sell you food, fuel etc for gold than they are for paper money If people thin they'll be super rich because of it then I think they haven't really thought it through - unless they know someone who'll sell brains for gold. Then gold will definitely help keep the zombies at bay.
That's not why I have it though - I think that as soon as the USD stops being the world reserve currency gold & silver will move back toward their historical values. I'm mid thirties so there is plenty of time.

[Zero Liability]

@ASB I appreciate that you didn't say that. I just put it out there because of the abundance of negative sentiment towards gold. Owning physical is like an insurance policy or savings fund you hope to never need. I think coins like Sovereigns take some of the difficulty with owning physical gold out of the equation. Whilst I don't think an apocalypse is imminent, central banks globally are playing a rather dangerous game, one which they may rapidly lose control of, and in some regions of the world, gold is held for that very reason, to 'store' wealth. That said, I'm not expecting a complete breakdown of the monetary system. Gradual and slow decay, perhaps.

In the event that not even gold is of use as money, there's precious little else that will be, since that'll be an effective reversion to barter until things stabilise sufficiently for money to re-establish itself. Yet like SO stated, it's always been seen as money, and there's also the possibility of the USD losing its reserve currency status. In that event, you could still make use of gold-holding firms as long as you are willing to accept the counter-party risk, which in their case may be pretty low.

However, aside from that scenario, if you're using gold (amongst other commodities, including silver) to diversify, gold holding firms, trackers and gold mining outfits are better options.

[ASB]

Certainly it ain't going to make you super rich.

In the extreme scenario of the return of gold as currency this would imply to me major lawlessness was probably also going on. As such I would perceive individual ownership could become a huge security risk and the mob might want to relieve you of whatever you had.

In any event, even if society was well ordered who the hell will have change for a sovereign.

Outside that potential nightmare I would agree that USD losing some of its status should prove good for gold (in fiat terms). Pricing oil outwith USD and establishing a market will possibly be a bit of a warning shot.

[petergriffin]

The futures contract is settled via the delivery of the physical commodity.
.

Not entirely true. The gold futures market is heavily manipulated.

[Jubber]

. I'm mid thirties so there is plenty of time.

Dear Mr Order

Ha ha ha ha ho ho ha ha

Yours
God

[MarillionFan]

24-hour Spot Chart - Gold

Time to buy! GOLD!