Investing in Gold The Essential Safe Haven Investment for Every Portfolio

Investing in Gold The Essential Safe Haven Investment for Every Portfolio

Can you afford not to buy gold?

. .

As many investors know, gold is a �safe-haven� asset that can actually increase in value during stock market slides and times of recession. But what else do you really know about this commodity? Are you taking full advantage of it? Do you know how to work it into your overall investment strategy?

. .

This detailed tutorial provides you with a comprehensive understanding of gold, from mine to market. Jonathan Spall, a 25-year veteran of the metals market, explains everything you’ll need to know for making gold a profitable part of your investment strategy. Investing in Gold gives you an inside look at how the precious metal is mined, refined, traded, and priced, along with valuable insight into gold’s unique position in the marketplace. Spall explores such topics as:

. .
• Simple and complex gold trading processes.
• The pivotal role central banks play in the gold market.
• Gold exchange traded funds (ETFs).
• How spot gold is traded.
• Why gold mining companies have traditionally hedged and why they no longer do so.
• Strategies for investing in the retail market

. .

Spall provides an extensive glossary of terms you’ll need to know, and he debunks various myths regarding this market, including the Fed’s supposed scheme to keep gold prices artificially low during the 1990s.

. .

The effects of global economic growth, the weakened dollar, the credit crunch, and the recent creation of enormous funds each affect the gold market; put them together and they add up to potential profits gold investors have never before dreamed of.

. .

Gold is a surprisingly small market. When you learn how to navigate it, the potential for excellent rewards becomes evident.

.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars A useful, informative, and concise guide to gold as an investment
A lot of books on gold are written by cranks, but this book is a delightful exception. Jonathan Spall is a professional who has been involved in trading commodities, including gold, for more than twenty-five years. He knows what the markets are really like, and what the industries around gold really do. This delightfully concise book will provide you with a solid understanding of the basics of what gold as an investment is really all about in the West and around the world.

While he does not cover the history of gold in various world civilizations, he does take you through the basics of how gold is mined and refined around the world. I found the information fascinating. He also explains why gold miners pre-sell or hedge the value of their production.

Spall then takes us through government uses of gold and which nations hold their reserves in gold and which in foreign currencies. You then get a quick tour through the markets of borrowing and lending gold and banks which hold gold reserves for various purposes.

So what does this mean to you? Well, you can invest in gold and the author shows you the various gold exchanges around the globe, how they trade and what they trade. You can also invest in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that allow you to purchase allocated gold but trade it like stock. Of course, you can buy gold that you can own. This is mostly done in jewelry. Outside the West most of the gold jewelry is of much higher fineness than our jewelry and is mean to store wealth more than it holds sentimental value. Spall explains why this is so, but it mostly has to do with the lack of trusted financial institutions as places to store wealth.

He then takes you through a few of the common gold myths and the realities behind them, why gold prices are trading higher now (there is no single reason) and how you can expose your portfolio to gold for various investment goals.

Pretty neat book.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

4 Stars Wide ranging and jaunty introduction
Disclosure: I know Jon Spall, having worked with him for a couple of years and being an enthusiastic subscriber to (and correspondent with) the daily “Barcap Commodity Comment” mailing list which he edits.

Indeed, it’s on the strength of that excellent electronic publication (highly recommended if you can get on the mailing list) that I got to know him: It’s fascinating and informative but most of all hysterically funny and decidedly un-corporatised overview of the markets (all the more credit to Barclays Capital for sanctioning it) from an excellent fellow with long experience of the markets who happens to be sitting in the front line as it happens. As you can probably imagine has been essential, if excruciating, reading over the last eighteen months as the markets have ritually disemboweled themselves.

No better a time, therefore, to be bringing out a publication extolling the virtues of the traditional last bastion of safety in an uncertain world, gold. Since the abandonment of the gold standard oft dismissed as a fossilised anachronism, in these days of seemingly uniform cratering across asset classes gold, like Keynes, is staging a bit of a revival. Even hedge funds - those that are left, that is - are piling in. And gold is what Jon Spall knows best. He’s been in the market for a quarter of a century, and this book distills that learning, and the sort of context that you don’t usually get in a business book - there’s much learning here on mining techniques, hedging, transport and the history of the market - and with the sort of jaunty tone that Commodity Comment faithful will enjoy - sample excerpt: “the task of explaining the many properties ascribed to gold to an alien would not be easy” - though consciously toned down for sober, old economy, publication. If I had a criticism it would be just that - it doesn’t quite give you the full flavour of Jon Spall in all his fairy-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden-shooting glory, but that’s very definitely a minor niggle. As the book develops the level of technical detail increases - there’s an interesting chapter analysing the current performance of gold in the market turmoil - but the detail is never overwhelming (it hardly could be as the book weighs in at under 200 pages)

Bang up to date with the zeitgeist in including an FAQ as well as a glossary, this is as good a place as any to start if gold is what you’re about.

Olly Buxton

Buy/More Info