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Gold
Dec 21, 2020 18:40:47 GMT -6
Post by Admin/YBB on Dec 21, 2020 18:40:47 GMT -6
GOLD is a real asset that interests many investors for portfolio diversification. Simple ways to invest include gold-bullion ETFs IAU, GLD; and gold-mining company ETFs GDX [majors], GDXJ [majors+juniors]. At the end of the post, there is a live link for gold quotes from Kitco. If one is interested in buying gold coins/biscuits/bars, the following terminology on gold measures may be helpful: 12 Troy ounces of gold make 1 Troy pound of gold (unlike the usual 16 oz of peanuts for 1 Lb of peanuts). Note that measures differ for #preciousmetals and other regular stuff. 1 Troy oz of gold has 31.1034768 grams of gold (1 oz of peanuts has 28.350 gm of peanuts) 1 Tonne = 1,000 KG = 1,000,000 gm = 32,150.7465686 Troy oz 1 Tola = 0.375 Troy oz = 11.6638038 gm (definition varies) Gold is 19.32 times heavier than water, silver is 10.49 times heavier (specific gravities) 1 cubic meter of gold is 19.32 Tonnes 24 Karat gold is 100% pure; 18 Karat gold is 75% pure (100x18/24 %) Karat is used only for gold; Carat is used for gemstones; silver is marked as xxy for xx.y% purity. #PersonalFinance; 11/23/20 AM. www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html
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Gold
Apr 20, 2021 20:43:48 GMT -6
Post by Admin/YBB on Apr 20, 2021 20:43:48 GMT -6
Gold & Silver Addendum GOLD has limited industrial uses and is used for jewelry, investments, and central banks reserves [#1-US, #2-Germany]. Most of the gold ever mined is still around in some form. SILVER on the other hand is both precious and industrial metal. Historically, gold and/or silver were used for, or to back, currencies, but that is no longer the case. The money today is fiat- or paper- money, i.e., issued by government regulations/orders/decrees and there may be penalties for not accepting local money for some transactions. New forms of digital-money or cryptocurrencies [Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, digital-yuan, etc] are also evolving; surprisingly, the emergence of these has hurt gold as traditional alternative to fiat-money. BULLION ETFs for GOLD include GLD [#7 if included in the gold reserves list of countries], IAU, SGOL, etc; for SILVER, SLV, SIVR. Some of these make a point about holding only bullion, how and where, vs using some futures [paper- gold or silver]. But these issues are more for marketing and PR. Also be aware that capital gains on sale are taxed at higher collectibles tax rates. Canadian bullion closed-end funds CEF [gold+silver] and PHYS [gold] may trade at premiums/discounts and also have special PFIC tax issues for the US investors. Investors worried about access to physical gold or silver should buy and hold biscuits, coins, bars. Gold-MINING ETF GDX [follows $GDM/^GDM Gold Minors Index] holds major gold producers including many companies in South Africa. Junior GDXJ [follows MVGDXJ Junior Gold Miners Index] at one time had only small-cap producers. But as it became big, it added mid/large-cap companies and is now mid-cap overall. Because of its mix of small, medium, large companies, it may be a better holding than GDX. It retains “Junior” in its name. Both GDX, GDXJ are concentrated, have several common holdings, and have common fund comanagers. Gold-mining ETFs are much more volatile than bullion ETFs; GDX has 2.5x the volatility of GLD, and GDXJ 3x. Silver-MINING ETFs include SIL, SLVP, SILJ. GOLD+OIL. There are also US closed-end funds GGN, GNT that hold gold-miners and energy-producers; these 2 funds differ only in sector weightings and leverage. These also use options to generate higher income/distribution and much of that may be ROC. However, gold and oil cycles differ considerably, and because of options, the upsides on major moves in either gold or energy may be capped. Small amounts of precious metals may also be held by natural-resources or commodities funds. Although the focus here is on ETFs, there are several precious metal mutual funds [OEFs], and one can also find major companies from the top holdings of funds. Edit/Add, 12/3/23. TwitterLINKYBB Personal Finance @ybb_Finance (12/3/23) There are several cheaper gold-bullion ETFs - $IAUM (9 bps; also from iShare), $GLDM (10 bps; also from SPDR), $SGOL (17), $IAU (25; iShare),..., $GLD (40; SPDR). Liquidity or volume may not be a huge issue for retail investors.
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Gold
Feb 5, 2024 16:14:00 GMT -6
Post by Admin/YBB on Feb 5, 2024 16:14:00 GMT -6
Gold Karats & FinenessFineness is parts per thousand, or typically, 3 decimal digits. Karat scale has 24k for pure gold. But pure gold is never 100% gold, and 995-999 fineness or higher is considered pure gold; the record was 999.999 fineness by an Australian mint in 1957. In many countries, the gold content must be at least 8k-10k for jewelry (British sp jewellery) to be called gold jewelry; minimum for the US is 10k. Lot of costume jewelry is 14k-18k. Most Indian jewelry is 22k; 24k is just too soft. Alloying metals or materials give gold distinctive colors (other than yellow) - white, pink, blue, purple, black, etc. Gold coins are 22k-24k; South African Krugerrand is 22k, but 1 oz Krugerrand has 1 oz of gold, so its actual weight is a bit higher (33.93 gm, not 31.10 gm). Largest producers of gold are China, Russia, Australia, US, Canada; before 1995, South Africa was the largest producer. The largest importers of gold are China or India. Gold has few industrial uses, but it is used in electronics because of its high electrical conductivity. A minor use is in foods as gold foil or flakes or dust. Gold Purity Fineness Karat 99.9% 999 24k 99.5% 995 24k 95.83% 958.3 23k 91.6% 916 22k 90% 900 21k 83.4% 834 20k 75% 750 18k 58.5% 585 14k 41.7% 417 10k 37.5% 375 9k 33.3% 333 8k BullionByPost www.bullionbypost.com/index/gold/gold-purity/Wiki - Gold Coin en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_coinWiki - Gold en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldWorld Gold Council - Gold Facts www.gold.org/about-gold/gold-factsWorld Gold Council - Jewelry www.gold.org/about-gold/about-gold-jewellery
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