Is now a good time to buy Gold?

[QuarterMillionMan]

On 9/13/13 at 2:00 am PST the spot price of gold is now $1309 an ounce. Is now a good time to buy gold? Or should one wait for it to drop further? It could also go back up. I'm keeping a close eye on gold. Investing in precious metals can be very risky. If I do make a move it'll on the EFT's (gld, iau, slv, pplt, etc.). I lost a lot of money recently on the precious metals ETF's so I'm hesitant to make any knee jerk reactions.

[dojo]

I have bought gold (bullion) even when it was 2 thousands/ounce. We're not trading it, we're 'collecting' it for when we retire. So in our case, when we have the cash to get a coin, we're buying it

[QuarterMillionMan]

I admire your nerves of steel to buy & hold. Me if it drops $100 I get nervous. If it drops $300 I go into full panic mode (LOL).

[kork13]

I lost a lot of money recently on the precious metals ETF's so I'm hesitant to make any knee jerk reactions.

I admire your nerves of steel to buy & hold. Me if it drops $100 I get nervous. If it drops $300 I go into full panic mode (LOL).

In that case you have no place investing in gold, other precious metals, or anything else that is typically so unstable. When you invest, you need to know, understand, and follow your own personal level of comfort. If watching your assets drop in value causes you to panic, make knee-jerk reactions, and generally uncomfortable, you need to change what you're investing in.

[feh]

Personally, I don't think you should be invested in that sector. It's not a necessary asset in a diversified portfolio. What is the reason for your desire to play in this space?

Trying to time the market is rarely (if ever) a good idea. Trying to time a market as volatile as gold makes even less sense.

[greenskeeper]

Silver

[QuarterMillionMan]

I'm taking a new perspective on gold, dollar cost averaging which is to buy a little over time rather than jumping in all at once. This includes silver & platinum as well.

[kv968]

Personally, I don't think you should be invested in that sector. It's not a necessary asset in a diversified portfolio. What is the reason for your desire to play in this space?

Trying to time the market is rarely (if ever) a good idea. Trying to time a market as volatile as gold makes even less sense.

Technically, gold should be a necessary asset in a diversified portfolio.

Diversified basically means that when one asset class zigs the other zags. Well for the past 10 years gold has had about a 0.46 correlation to the S&P 500 and a 0.68 correlation to Vanguard's World ETF (VT) since 2008. A total U.S. bond portfolio (AGG) had a 0.59 correlation to the S&P over 10 years and a 0.83 to the world ETF since 2008. So, at least to me, it seems as if holding a little gold in a portfolio could do you some justice.

I'm not advocating putting a lot of your portfolio in gold or other precious metals but they do help in diversification.

[97guns]

i only hold 2 assets classes with a ratio close to 50/50, gold and real estate, both in physical form, no paper assts.

all reserve funds are put into metal every month, thats how the indians and chinese roll, they put every penny they own into gold. ive been running my portfolio this way for the past 4 years

[QuarterMillionMan]

Jim Cramer of CNBC says to allocate 5% to 10% diversification in gold. Me personally about a 25% holding is a good number. The majority of this 25% is in the physical metal itself but includes the paper assets as well (ie, GLD, SLV, PPLT).

[bjl584]

I heard some interesting commentary on gold recently. The person speaking said that gold is not a hedge against inflation. It is a hedge against fear. But, how does one put a price on fear? Is gold $500 an once scared, or is it $1500 an ounce build a fall out shelter and stockpile weapons terrified? The point is, it is very hard to put a price on as to whether or not gold is a good buy or not.

[97guns]

i've been selling gold on ebay for $2K an oz. it is not just run of the mill bullion but non the less someone is willing to pay. i can get $35/oz for silver

for me holding physical, i have no fear

[J.Apple902]

i only hold 2 assets classes with a ratio close to 50/50, gold and real estate, both in physical form, no paper assts.

all reserve funds are put into metal every month, thats how the indians and chinese roll, they put every penny they own into gold. ive been running my portfolio this way for the past 4 years

Yeah these guys do this bc they don't trust a)their countries currency (ask any Chinese) and b)the international backing of the dollar (so basically all worldwide currency).

I think we'll see a world wide versions of Europe during the last 3 years, and many countries which are in debt internationally are screwed. Holding physical assets at this time will be better than virtual.

It makes no sense for gold and SP500 (or various other indices) to not have a better correlation. The gold market is artificially suppressed when the economy slumps, this is true.

[dojo]

Good observation.

In my country, the national currency (Leu), dropped significantly in value 20 years ago. Just imagine that few days ago you had the money to buy a house and now you might buy yourself a pair of jeans with your lifelong savings. I mean THIS BAD. My family and many others suffered from this catastrophic inflation and you can imagine I will not save like this.

The Euro, if you ask me, is not something I'd save in for many years, you never know what will happen. Same with the dollar and other currencies. Nowadays you can never know when your savings are worthless just because of some political events or anything that might bring said currency to the ground.

But gold is gold. Physical one, not something that appears on the paper. This is why we're not too focused on the prices, since it doesn't matter that much. It's something to 'collect' for the next 20-40 years, not something to buy/sell now.

[BuckyBadger]

I don't believe that there is ever a good time to buy physical metals as an investment, so no - in my opinion, now is NOT a good time to buy gold.