This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller Loads Up On Gold, Makes It His Largest Position For First Time Ever
Over the past several years, one of the biggest critics of the Fed's ruinous monetary policy has been billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who in 2010 announced he would be shutting down his legendary Duquesne Capital Management, and convert it to a family office. Yet, despite his constant drumbeat of warnings that the period of ZIRP/QE/NIPR will end in tears, he had yet to put money where his mouth was (aside for a brief period in mid-2012 when we bought a lot of GLD calls, only to unwind the almost instantly).
This ended on June 30, when following Friday's filing by the Duquesne Family Office, we learned that as of the end of Q2, the largest position for Stanley Druckenmiller was none other than gold, following the purchase of 2.9 million shares of the GLD ETF shares. In other words, as of this moment, gold amount to over 20% of Druckenmiller's total holdings.
In a world in which starved for ideas alpha-chasers do anything and everything that billionaires report they did a month and a half ago, we wonder if this marks the end of the relentless liquidation in the GLD, which recently hit a multi-year low, as a result driving the price of paper gold to multi-year lows even as physical demand has approached record levels.
So with Druckenmiller now back and strapped in for the ride, we wonder which other prominent investor will promptly follow?
h/t Shane Obata
»
- 130677 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
He loaded up on paper. Not gold.
We prefer physcial.
So TRUE, he holds ONLY a Promise to Gold, GOOD LUCK SUCKER !
“the purchase of 2.9 million shares of the GLD ETF shares. In other words, as of this moment, gold amount to over 20% of Druckenmiller's total holdings.”
Correction: “as of this moment, fractional digital wood pulp amounts to over 20% of Druckenmiller's total holdings.”
< Yellen printing machine + infinite naked paper shorts
< DruNkenmiller
Yellen's printing machine is running on fumes. Printing funny money only works for so long. A reversion to the mean will happen when the dollar's diminishing returns come home to roost.
Loaded Up On GOLD Paper ETF ??????
Come On Guys, We All Know That When The HAMMER HITS, All That "GOLD Paper" Will Easily Be Converted Into Physical, I Mean, Do We Not Trust The FED....
The SPDR Gold Trust is owned by its five largest shareholders. The agreement in the trust is that only the five largest shareholders are paid out in physical. Everyone else gets a paper claim.
The five largest shareholders are JPM, GS, BAC, WFC, and MS.
The puppets who say that gold should not be held in a portfolio aren't paying attention or have an agenda.
Come on, everyone. It's the thought that counts! /s
EOG and FCX? Ouch.
He should do okay;... as long as Gartman doesn't go long...
People like this Drunkenmiller ho could not even buh Bitcoin if fhey wanted to. It would create a legal nightmare for their accountants, and they would make someone's "to whack" list pretty fast.
Good readin' on Bitcoin and financial topics in general (some of you might be surprised) can be found at:
http://bitcointalk.org
Bitcoin is just another shitty fiat currency.
For the nth time Bitcoin is NOT a fiat currency!!
If a government forced you to use gold in transactions, that would make gold A FIAT CURRENCY (in that country)!
Gotta love how the derps here pretend to be some type of "alternative" to the current system.... don't even understand basic terminology.
Sorry, but you are the one that does not understand terminology.
Fiat - an official order given by someone who has power
Fiat Money - money (as paper currency) not convertible into coin or specie of equivalent value
In reality there is also a difference between currency and money.
Gold is considered a specie, so even if an order was given to use it, it would still not be fiat money.
Bitcoin is a virtual currency. Only advantage it has, over government issued paper fiat currencies, is that there is a theoretical limit of how much of it can be created. The downside is that there is nothing to prevent competition from anothe virtual currency.
It is about as useful as Second Life money..
YES! FIAT - "by order of" (or see legal tender)
NOT the ZH definition of "FIAT" ~ "Something we do not understand and do not like"
And BTC does not have a "theoretical" limit. It has an actual, defined limit in the objective reality we all share.
This guy must be high. Now is not the time to buy gold. Sell all metal. The American dolla is the king.
Oh ok. So without the govt force, then it's just fiat bullshit. LOL!
MIght as well keep the chain going here: Look you guys, Drunkenmiller's not stupid. He's expecting a pop at which time he will jump right back out of GLD. I expect he's accumulating physical on the side and doesn't want anyone to know about that.
;-D
Well having an ETF lets you click the sell button just when you want to. Physical no matter if you could sell it to a dealer or high street jeweler it's a pain the arse, leaves paper trail and may (certainly in UK) involve various proofs, id's, bank transfers (not cash) etc. If you're a trader, ETF is your game and I'd bet most of these pilfer's on ZH buy ETF paper gold, selling on the up after pimping physical ownership to smocks.
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Jewelery Quarter in Birmingham and also in London - walk in, ask their buy/sell price then buy or sell for cash and walk out. Why are you trying to misinform the ZH readers who are mostly US based?
You must have missed it Shark,Fartman went long gold on MSNBC middle of last week...
Theoretically..., he could take physical possession if he chose. It's just the rest of us sheep that can't.
If I understand the rules correctly, he would need to become an "authorized Participant" in order to be able to redeem "baskets" of GLD into physical. GLD was created as a gold pool to facilitate the member banks' manipulation of the market, with the assistance of suckers....er, investors. Authorized Participants can redeem their shares for physical when they need it in order, say, to keep COMEX from declaring "force". The money to buy actual gold is provided by the lumpenproletariat (how do you say "muppets" in German?).
FCX, EOG, NEM and AA could be causing Stan a world hurt, unless he got into the names just recently (in which case the positioning would be brilliant IMHO).
And ladies... ease up on Stan's GLD holding.
He doesn't have to convert it to physical to derive value from the position. All he has to do is have GLD be equal to more and more of this funny money called the 'greenback'.
He can convert GLD into more greenbacks, with which he can purchase you via the time you willingly give up for this funny money when employed.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone should cobble together a South Park episode about the "smug" among gold bugs...
Fuck mining companies. They're corporate whores like the rest of them. And for trading the shares in for greenbacks, well, the whole point of holding physical is to not be relient on a promise to pay, which is all a dollar is.
I was just gonna ask, "So when's he taking delivery?"
Does he really believe that being paid out will be better than taking delivery?
Why does it feel like I've only read half a story here?
For him it likely a trade not an investment, security or insurance, as it is for many of us.
To take delivery from GLD, he would need 100,000 shares, or a little more than $10.5 million worth. 100,000 shares is the size of a "basket," the redeemable quantity.
Druckenmiller bought 2.9 million shares of GLD ETF. That's quite enough to request physical delivery -- if there were enough physical in the GLD ETF fund, which there isn't or won't be if/when he were to request delivery.
Soon to be a millionaire instead of a billionaire.
The price of Gold on the GLD will decline to ZERO. That is what an unenforcable contract is worth...NOTHING.
Force majuere sucker.
He must know this and I am sure he is permissioned for futures. Wonder why he didn't go directly to the gold futures? They settle to physical metal if that's what you want and they allow for more leverage if you are just holding the position and don't want to deal with the physical stuff plus I feel there is less counter party risk in the future vs an ETF for sure.
There is really no good reason that I can think of to buy GLD over the future if you can trade the future so maybe its against his charter? (CME website GC contract info)
What Stan does not appear to appreciate is that paper gold <> physical gold. This would become a problem if FOFOA's predictions turn out to be even remotely correct.
$55,000 physical gold <> $400 paper gold
Show his hedges.....
Stanley Dumbshitmiller just handed his money over to the crooks who will first use it to suppress gold pricces
and then steal it when the COMEX and GLD go BOOM!!
He gets fiat or rock, whatever is worth the least at the time. Errr, he gets fiat.
Is he really that dumb? What's the real story here?
Precisely, as stated above....he bought paper, his largest position is golden paper.
In fact, given the sleight of hand that is the FED and Fiat, paper gold is the untimate sleight of hand.
Hair today, gone tomorrow....the true story of gold is probably beyond bizarre....
https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/shattering-midass-curse-gold...
Next idiot. Paulson is previous one. They all be fleeced. Must be PhD to enter paper gold or it is latest desperate Cartel attempt to divert puplic attention from physical "pet rocks". LOL
So it's basically nothing more than a short term trade.
The only real suckers here are the ZH-ers who get a hard on from anything that might be bullish for gold, of course after having missed an epic stock market rally and after getting clobbered over the last 3 years on precious metals.
Maybe if you pull your head out of your ass and actually read the comments...
...and then please FUCK OFF you nob jockey.
Question to believers in free gold:
Could Stanley request delivery of physical from this ETF position and cause the bullion bank to default?
Dame, its pretty obvious that ol' Dreck is not interested in physical. He sees this as a trading opportunity, since that is what the ETFs are for. So, unless he is playing a straddle, his opinion is that gold price will rise from here. He will sell when his target prices are met.
With regard to you question, if any ETF holder stands for delivery there will be huge resistance and delays to the request, possibly months and months of delays. Any request for delivery which could be construed as "disruptive" by the managers of the fund, can simply be denied.
If Dreck wanted physical gold in quantity he'd do better to simply buy a gold mine or negotiate a deal with a mine such that his "loans" are paid back in physical. His current ETF position is close to a third of a billion, so he should have no problem finding a productive venture to siphon physical off of the stream.
Hi Spig - Thanks for taking the time to provide this clear and useful explanation.
I'm a barbarous phyzz man through and through. I've not delved into the machinations of GLD/ SLV ETFs simply as it just feels ethically wrong.
Thanks too Mr. Peabody
My understanding is that GLD and COMEX can deliver paper in extremis. Not gold, but they'll give you a check! For the paper gold price...
Me too on the phyz. But this one position is quite interesting in terms of a relatively radical departure from prior holdings and shows some light on the inner thunking of these types, and their assessment of where there will be positive price action.
Yes..., he can ask. No, they may not have to default.
Nob jockey? I've never heard that one before, I love it! Good one!
Australians...masters at getting our mouth around cunning linguistics.
"Could Stanley request delivery of physical from this ETF position and cause the bullion bank to default?"
It can never default because it can always pay out the delivery request in fiat paper.
to Dame Ednas Possum, who asks: Could Stanley request delivery of physical from this ETF position and cause the bullion bank to default?
Sure, he could ASK for it, but only the bullion banks are actually GETTING it.
The prospectus says the large holders can take possession, but as Sponge Bob once said, "Good luck with that".
The GLD Fund has been systematically drained for the last five years, its inventory under 800 tons. Great debate stirs over the actual effective zero level being around 700 tons, since gold in motion from the mining firm output is counted in the fund (Jackass suspicion). Worse, the legitimate investors of GLD, even with sufficient number of shares according to the prospectus, are being denied a conversion to gold bars from the GLD shares.
Bokken, in case you've missed it, metal men and women are about HONEST MONEY.
there is an after MATH....see? Everythiing needs to get SQUARED in the end...
Honesty....An elusive concept now-a-days....
Exactly Ori, Gold has always given an accouting of fiat currencies. We would all be wise to look at the historical outcomes of fiat.
"It's worth what I tell you its worth!"
DaddyO
"Honesty....An elusive concept now-a-days.... "
Indeed.
Honesty is even rare here on Zero Hedge where Bungholio Duh Goldschmucken fails to disclose that he is employed selling paper gold when he posts 'articles' concluding in advisement of gold purchases.
Funny how those threads dissapear from the Zero Hedge servers immediately after I call him on it...
https://www.linkedin.com/in/delandevoisin
"Director U.S. Liaison Office
GoldSwitzerland - MAM AG2013 – 2014 (1 year)New York / Zurich
GoldSwitzerland - MAM AG offers institutional and UHNW clients the most secure platform for physical precious metals investment. In this unprecedented era of overt monetary debasement, we pride ourselves as true wealth preservationists who adhere to the most ardent principles of financial asset protection.
LBMA certified bullion bars are allocated & segregated under direct individual client control and ownership, staged in ultra-safe private vaults strictly outside the global banking system, eliminating counterparty risk exposure. We vault bullion in an ultimate security state-of-the-art facility at an undisclosed location, situated deep in the Swiss Alps with substantial storage capabilities, where International central banks store their gold reserves.
Our ultra secure dedicated vaults are situated in Switzerland, a long standing democratic republic, a distinctively safe, stable and neutral country with a rich tradition of gold ownership and no historic incidence of asset confiscation. "
Interesting enough his Linkdin profile does NOT disclose WHO Bungholio has been employed by for the last year or so.
Tim Knight's Social Trade is there, and the last Gold selling gig is listed; but, NOT Bungholio's present employer...
MOAR Gold hustling? Why, right you are! HOW did you guess???
https://www.bullioncapital.com
Gold is down more than 17% in the last 12 months even with the recent bounce. The chart looks like shit:
https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=GC&p=d1
The Gold hustlers must be getting pretty fucking desperate to PAY to run blatant sales pitches back to back night and day all weekend long in here...
? Hmmm....:
Google cache Bruno De Landevoisin Aug 15 Zero Hedge
Weekend 'Tyler' indeed....
Yes, I observed this effect about 10 days ago when I refuted a minor claim from one of our esteemed ZH commentators by presenting a point of fact supported by my personal experience, observation of local business practices, and a Youtube video.
The article immediately disappeared into never-never land. You could find it if you looked, but it was buried by a sequence of other "hot stories," and there were no further comments or defense from the Original Author.
Caveat lector.
Caveat Sword Of The Lictor.
Perhaps some position on Gold (phys) will allow you to achieve wood also. Envious nitwit!
true enough but most billionaires speed dials include the people who decide whose paper promises get honored vs whose get muppeted - I think they call that the "corzine principle"...
There is that...
There are RULES and then there are RULERS...
"Can an investor take physical possession of the gold backing his/her GLD shares?
The Trustee, The Bank of New York Mellon, does not deal directly with the public. The Trustee handles creation and redemption orders for the Trust's shares with Authorized Participants, who deal in blocks of 100,000 SPDR® Gold Shares. An individual investor wishing to exchange shares for physical gold would have to come to the appropriate arrangements with his or her broker and an Authorized Participant."
http://www.spdrgoldshares.com/usa/faqs/#q4fa24b4ed60b5
Drunkenmiller has a sizable enough block of GLD where if he wanted to he can take physical delivery. The issue with gold when talking about size like this is where do you store it and how do you secure it and if needed going about transporting it? We're not talking about 100 American Eagles you can bury in a coffee can in your back yard. GLD is a good way to have a position in gold without the hassle of protecting and storing it though again with Drunkenmiller's position he most certainly could take deilvery if he wants.
The sad part about so called Paper Gold is you no longer get a Paper Certificate when you "invest" in Paper Gold. All you get is Digital Gold that can't be burned for it's BTU value or Paper for your wall.
He probably wanted Physical but could not buy in quantity so he went the easy route and got paper instead.
There is a whopping 124 ounces in paper claims to every ounce of physical gold
>> 124 ounces in paper claims
Are you confusing GLD with Comex?
Likely doesn't matter as Comes paper counts as physical in the GLD prospectus.
Cmon Stanley... GET DELIVERY HOMIE!
He can't be that smart
The Gold Cartel has been raiding the physical metal from GLD for years; but especially the last couple of years.
someone "loads up" on an ETF and we're supposed to stop the fucking presses?
Can anyone answer why - if paper if fake and physical is so scarce - why isn't this spread blowing out? I've yet to get an answer on this that makes any sense.
Current guesses: Maui (if I remember rightly), Yemen(???), Ukraine ... dammit! I forget the rest of them. Someone please help this man.
EDIT: Plus 'coz Germany can wait ...
Iran
The COMEX contracts are settled for FRNs...If those criminal traders - i.e. ANYONE taking part in this CRIMEX scam - stood for physical delivery, this whole paper scheme would end in one big implosion.
He doesn't want an implosion. He just wants to get richerer. I, too, forgot the simple explanation.
(But this does not negate my comment at 6432040)
Please refer to LOM cash costs (Page 3):
http://www.wdttforum.com.au/uploads/1/3/3/6/13367538/anglogold_presentat...
Don't forget it is in Aussie Dollars.
Maybe there still are a few profitable gold mines out there. Or have I forgotten something?
It'll be interesting if the billionaire suicides, of this generation, come from those who loaded up on paper gold.
And when the Feds outlaw physical gold but leave the ETF's alone what will be the result? It'll happen. And when it does that will turn "conventional wisdom" on its head and force people into paper and pixels on a computer screen. Then the game will be on to turn ETF's into FRN's in order to buy stuff. Yea I know it's not something we all want but since when does that matter?
I have long thought it would clarify discussion of issues if reporters and commentators could be forced to use a spell checker which would not allow them to use the word "immigration" by itself. They would be forced to select either "illegal immigration" or "legal immigration." Same for "immigrant" or "migrant".
I now propose that ZH disallow the use of the world word "gold" by itself and require use of either "physical gold" or "paper gold."
I also believe that the time has come that now we need a succinct term to describe "physical gold held outside the financial system."
2.9 million shares of the GLD ETF than means that i have more gold than him and i only have one ounce.
He is getting ready to short it.
He is getting ready to short it.
"2.9 million shares of the GLD ETF shares"
If you aren't holding it, you don't own it
And with #2 being Fakeschnook...all creds went right out the proverbial window.
yeah, that list doesn't look too impressive to me
the miners are the best bets.
You are an idiot. Stanley is one of the most astute investors of our time. He has and will continue to make money by owning companies. He has bought an insurance policy. I think it behooves everyone to take notice. He knows the difference between paper gold and physical gold, this is how he has positioned himself at this moment in time.
Yes, he is in "the club" and on the right side of the "just-us" system.
Tick tock motherfucker...
remain calm Re "... this is how he has positioned himself ...":
But Why?
My guess is, he thinks gold is going to go up. Gold goes up, GLD goes up. He'll dump it when he makes his target return or hits a stop loss price. He's not buying it as a hedge for SHTF. If he wanted physical, he'd buy it. He's not an idiot.
Shit, that was June 30. We don't know if he's still holding it. If he is, he's down on that position, since that date, anyway.
You keep on worshiping the right hand of Soros and believing that he's more 'astute' than 'corrupt'; the peeps here on ZH know better than your sorry ass.
So... you don't think his bet in Skynet will pay off?
You sound like one of those wishful-thinking Utopians.
I am sure most of you zipper heads who live in your own fantasy world have done better
According to Bloomberg News, on August 18, 2010, Druckenmiller announced the closing of his hedge fund "telling investors he'd been worn down by the stress of trying to maintain one of the best trading records in the industry while managing an 'enormous amount of capital.'"[6] Duquesne Capital Management posts an average annual return of 30 percent without any money-losing year. His funds were down for about 5 percent when he announced his retirement in August. However, they had since erased the losses and closed with a small gain through successful bets that the market would rally in anticipation that the Federal Reserve would announce further "Quantitative Easing" to assist in reducing unemployment and avoid deflation.[8]
And another thing that most of you ignorant dick heads don't understand is that the GLD trades at 10% of the price of gold and that is because it actually holds 10% PHYSICAL GOLD. Dumb fucks most of you! That is why most of you are not wealthy. Fuck off
well I'm glad your multi-billionaire ass is here on ZH to set all us booger pickers down in the trailer park straight... fuck off
Congratulations, you moved up from ass picker to booger picker. It warms my heart to see their still is hope for the American dream for you.
you're just mad because now you're three levels below me, not two... keep practicing
git unda da bus bitchez
20%? Fucking piker.
That's not gold he's loaded up on. He's got a loosing hand if he thinks paper is going anywhere.
'''He's got a loosing hand if he thinks paper is going anywhere.''
as opposed to a tightening hand? or did you mean LOSING hand?
Loose=opposite of tight
Lose= opposite of win
He's talking bowels,or is it vowels,or adbowels or advowels.
Who the fuck cares when the meaning of words has been destroyed ?
They're all made up anyway.
.... but, .... how much gold .... does he have .... high profile hoarders .... have no place to hide !
The hoarders can only be high-profile if they are 1) Openly bragging about their holdings, or 2) Buying their gold with traceable methods, like credit cards, stuff like that.
Both of these things are very easy NOT to do. And if you are buying gold because you foresee trouble ahead, you do NOT want to be doing these things, period.
It should be between you and the 4 walls...or the muddy lake bottom, whatever...
Hell Yes. When the world's central banks overtake the world markets with freshly printed fiat you know that crap is about to turn worthless.
The way to play gold over the last 50 years was to buy and sell, scalping premiums.
Lots of energy, chemicals and banks in the list. Interesting...
The question one ought to ask is the following: Has Mr. D acquired GLD shares with the intent to redeem, as he has more than enough shares to do so?
Redemption is allowed for authorized participants only, like GS, JPM, etc...
Wow, brilliant.
I've been doing it as long as China.
Paper trash... ROFL!
Only question I have is, "If the guy is a F$$King billionaire, why does he need anymore money?"
The strenght of your voice is directly proportional to the size of your wallet.
Because the more money he accumulates, the lower the velocity of money.
Buying paper gold? Dumb money.
No. He's the "little old lady". Now the question becomes, who is the lawyer?
http://jokes.cc.com/funny-work/g0d174/little-old-lady-s-banking-wager
Wonder what would happen if Stan purchased the equivalent of those paper holdings to "PHYSS"...
Don't answer that!
Until there is a serious currency crisis in all fiat, goldbugs will be up the creek. Unless of course Central banks decide to pull the old switcheroo on start actively supporting gold. Who knows what those dickheads intend to do?
Other than fuck over us of course.
exactly. he will learn the hard way - he is not big enough to fight city hall.
AA FCX Pioneer Noble HAL
unless he bought last week, he is sucking wind.
This as of June 30. He is accumulating.
It's sad how the 'smartest poeple in the room' dont know the difference between real assets and dollar denominated virtual assets.
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain (It's time to toss the dice)
The Daily Economist
WTF? I though he would be trolling kindergartens and railing against boomer entitlements, " you know what infants, the boomers are ripping you off."
Give the guy a break he probably has a few monster boxes buried out in the yard.
duplicate
That's one hell of a lot of I.O.U.' s.
Surely he's read the prospectus, or maybe not.
And he will be completely subject to the trillionaires.
Hard to call a billionaire a moron... but GLD is for the sheep... UNLESS... he is smart enough to use his position to obtain PHYSICAL gold... and he better do it FAST.
He is using GLD as a transfering medium. GLD will be settled in WHATEVER species that is alive at the time in a new and adjusted price.
It's a transfer device. Just like Phys Au is.
Imagine you converted all your Argentinian pesos to Au a week before devaluation in 2001. The next week you convert them into TWICE the pesos.
Transfer device.
Excuse me, but he hasn't bought gold...he's bought paper.
When he decides to go for delivery, then he will have bought gold.
Last weekend I bought gold...over 10 grams of 14k jewelry, for one dollar. It went straight into my 'stash' with all the rest.
THAT'S how you 'buy gold'. When TSHTF, I will be able to cash in my old gold jewelry far more easily then this guy will redeem all that paper.
If you aren't currently holding it in your hand, you don't own it.
True, but if TS.. Really.. HTF, people won't care about that yellow metal. They'll care if you have food, water, power, shelter, etc.
It's only a hedge against an INFLATIONARY collapse. If we get one, it will be DEFLATIONARY like 2008. Gold will drop under $500 per ounce as everyone scrambles for dollars. Look at what gold did in late 2008.
Anyway, the gold market prices aren't based on supply and demand anyway. When you're trading paper, the physical (especially one with zero to little industrial use) is meaningless.
Deflation will come... but it won't be around for along when the Fed starts the money drop.
Precisely my thoughts. I've stated it here more than once that I'm in Dent's camp that deflation is a requirement for a reset. I differ strongly in regard to the duration of said event. Phyzz is the best value for me, and it'll perform so well at some point.
You and the other experts. Deflation, then inflation through the roof!
Greg Hunter with Gregory Manarino:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VrUd-ZAq4Y
Greg Hunter with Michael Snyder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW_QGuDchs8
Greg Hunter wth Jim Rogers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buDsxcFcdko
I enjoy Greg Hunter's guests, but sometimes I find it painful listening to him interview folks. I still listen though.
Only sometimes? I find him practically unlistenable.
Mannarino is a male nurse, who wrote a blackjack book.
Its a poor general indeed that always fights the previous war.
GLD can be converted to specie, when he wants to drive the price up that is what Stan will do.
You haven't read the GLD clause where it says.." ...Or settled in fiat at prevailing spot price".
He's got Facebook as a hedge, so he's got that going for him ;)
Druckenmiller has GLD for "show" , but he has physical gold for "dough". So...that would be about 50% of portfolio in gold.
Interesting that Wells Fargo which is owned by Warren Buffet has so many shares. It looks to me that he he's discussed this with his buddy over at Microsoft.They did the same buying into the railway business in Canada.Both also seem to jointly invest in many other things together.Maybe Warren's father who wrote about gold is having the "insurance" effect on them?
Any billionaire s rushing into gold will have these options..
The Miners, which is their best option at this point..
GlD/SLV, which is paper trash. .
And the Comex, which is even worse. .
The last option is to join us sweaties down at the coin shop..
Gold will have a big surge in value ONLY when the widespread fear or actual collapse of the fiat monetary system is immanent, and that collapse is many many many years away. Everyone alive today will be long dead before it happens because the regimes have many, many, many more tricks they can play with the fiat currencies, sovereign debt, etc.
HOWEVER,
IF a person is going to invest in gold, then I strongly agree with you, coins are the ONLY good way to go. All the paper and hypothecated "gold-backed" entities will be crap, and bullion will be a big risk and time + cost overhead in selling. Coins will be the easiest to liquidate or barter.
If I ever do buy PMs, it will be coins, nothing else.
There is a number of things that could under mine that timeframe. What happens if the Saudi oil fields/refineries get heavily damaged?
They don't control energy depletion
I certainly hope you're not banking on any numismatic value in said coins. If the SHTF, that may not go so well. Bullion always makes far more sense for me, and I expect liquidity to improve rapidly with the increased demand
Bullion is subject to much more fraud because it is very much easier to implement, ie gold-plated lead bars.
When you go to sell bullion, you must submit it IN TRUST to a dealer who is capable of performing the tests to determine authenticity.That dealer can easily rip you off while the bullion is in their possession by just claiming that what you gave them was fake - ESPECIALLY if the world is in crisis due to collapse of fiat currencies, financial markets, etc.
Coins are small denominations, much harder to forge, much more readily recognizable and exchangeable among ordinary people and retailers without having to go through bullion dealers, especially in times of crisis.