How to invest in gold in USA? Where to buy? Which Quality gold? Is it legal to buy and store gold? Please share your experiences. I remember NAS had mentioned about investing in gold in today's economy, but I couldnt find that thread.

ani f1 student le gold ma invest garda huncha??

Nas,
A quick question. How much of gold can we carry to Nepal. Do you have any idea?

To last poster,
Change your fcking username.!!

Yeah, seriously dude!! I am seriously talking about a housing bubble to draw a correlation between housing market and gold. Do you think it matters whether a bubble is in housing market or a commodity? Remember tulip mania in the 1500's? Just because it is a commodity does not mean that a bubble cannot happen, in fact it is much easier in the commodities market because the intrinsic value of gold is much harder to determine rather than the intrinsic value of things such as house or a car, in terms of dollars. Yes, in LONGER long term (in long term we are all dead, as Keyens said) the prices of house and gold will always go up. It is the Longer short term or Shorter short term that you have to worry about.

Debt ceiling? Really? Do you think that they are not going to come up with a solution? Really???

Weaker Dollar? Maybe it has some way to go but so has other currencies around the world? Remember everything is relative. What is the dollar going to fall against? Euro - It has its own problem. Yuan - It is pegged. Yen - maybe.

Inflation? Don't be a sucker and apply what you learnt in the school as is. Market does not look at inflation but inflation expectation and it is already baked into the current price of gold. In the event of QE3, which I believe is highly unlikely in current senario because it does not have enough political apetite, yes it is possible otherwise, inflation is a non-issue at this point.

Smart money has already left Gold. Now all you have is late entrants and speculators left. My personal cue was Soros hedge fund selling all their gold position a month or so back. We make our own personal decision. I have made mine sold my position to make a nice profit. If you seriously think that gold is going to go up by 50% or 100% from here, then gold might be for you. For me, I am done with gold, for now.

US dollar used to be backed by gold ...how is that for intrinsic value!!! They ran out of gold to back the dollar up or the price of gold rose too much ...so they got rid of that system ...and yeah they had to print more money

Everyone and their mothers know that the government is gonna raise the debt ceiling by any means which is the main kicker for gold prices to go up ...what solution are they gonna come up with...not raise the debt ceiling and have the government shut down?

The dollar is going to fall against itself..it wont be worth as much as it is today or against commodities ...it wont buy as much of commodity as it will now

Do we really know how much of the inflation expectation is baked into the current price of gold?
Yes I agree QE3 doesnt have enough political appetite as of now ..but have u seen the current recession curves compared with the previous ones...I would expect a QE4 too by looking at those curves..

Any equity or commodity does not go up in a straight line, there will be pullbacks, profit taking and corrections along the way ...maybe soros was taking profits before anyone else did and then picked it up at the bottom again

As you go back and re-read by post, I have in no way said that gold does not have intrinsic value. I have merely said that the intrinsic value of gold is very hard to determine in terms of dollars. The key words are: Very hard and in terms of dollars.

So, what is going to happen after debt ceiling is increased? Especially if it succeeds to include the debt reduction methods? I believe the dollar is going to go up? no?

Dollar is going to fall against itself does not have any meaning. What is it going to fall in relation to is the big question. As Einstien has pointed out a decade ago, nothing can exist in isolation. As long as dollar is better investment than anything around it, there will and always be a flight to dollar, it does not matter if dollar is worth a crap, it will still be the best crap around.

No, we do not know how much inflation expectation is baked into the gold but we do not know either how much actual inflation is going to occur. We use the best model we have to predict with the given level of money supply. The importance here is not the specific but the way things are priced in the market.

I will be the first one to agree that we do not know multitudes of things. We make decisions based on incomplete information. Who know what the real level of inflation is going to be? Who knows what the European debt crisis outcome is? Who know if George Soros Or John Paulson is adding to or selling like crazy the gold protfolios they have. As I said, I made my personal decision based on the timing and amount of investment I had. Maybe gold will skyrocket and be around $3,000 dollar a year hence. I have made a decision that I think is rational with the amount of information I have. I you believe this is wrong, you can and should invest more in gold. This is what makes markets function. Good luck investing in Gold!

Big dogs like Buffett and Soros are unloading their gold and silver positions. These people have histoy of making the right calls more often. All i have to say is "Be careful about going all in GOLD at these levels. When Buffet was selling his Stock positions in 2006 and 2007 people thought he was crazy but it all made sense his SELLS two years later.


http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/05/04/soros-fund-selling-gold/

Great story in this morning’s Journal on how some of the savviest investors in the world have been positioning themselves around the precious metals boom. Perhaps the most interesting bit is how George Soros’ fund has been easing out of the gold trade. Gregory Zuckerman and Carolyn Cui report:

 

While many who buy gold do so to protect against future inflation, Soros Fund Management bought gold to protect against the possibility of the opposite — debilitating deflation, or a sustained drop in consumer prices.

But now the $28 billion Soros firm, which is run by Keith Anderson, believes chances of deflation are reduced, eliminating the need to hold as much gold, according to people close to the matter.

People familiar with Mr. Anderson’s thinking said he believes the Federal Reserve’s continuing to pump money into the system has reduced the likelihood of deflation.

The Soros team, meanwhile, isn’t especially worried about a surge in inflation. Mr. Anderson has argued that by the end of this year the Fed will signal that interest-rate increases are in the offing, possibly early in 2012, according to someone close to the firm. Higher interest rates would tend to suppress inflation.

The Soros fund has sold much of its gold and silver investments over the past month or so, according to this person.


Here is another link:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/soros-is-selling-his-gold-should-you-too-2011-06-06


Buffet also sold his Silver positions and here is what his take is on GOLD

 

“Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

and another:

“You could take all the gold that’s ever been mined, and it would fill a cube 67 feet in each direction. For what that’s worth at current gold prices, you could buy all — not some — all of the farmland in the United States. Plus, you could buy 10 Exxon Mobils, plus have $1 trillion of walking-around money. Or you could have a big cube of metal. Which would you take? Which is going to produce more value?”

 

I will be waiting to be corrected then...

How about buying that gold now ? Does anyone think its gonna break 1180-1200 key support levels on the downside?

I bought 5 bullions when I was in NYC from a nepalese jewelry store in queens. I paid cash to avoid tax at that time. I paid 1700 for each of them and I checked it online today its 1231 right now. I am not in NY anymore so is there any way I can buy them from online website, I don't know which one to trust and how much do they charge for shipping and tax?

If you really wanna buy, you can use apmex.com or Tulving.com or similar sites but you may wanna read this article before buying, if you believe in Roubini. If you portfolio has already more than 10% of precious metal, then don't add anymore. my 0.02 http://www.indexuniverse.com/sections/features/19428-roubini-sees-1000-gold-us-growth.html?fullart=1&start=3

Thanks for the link and the website, I was checking apmex.com and found out they were selling different types of gold what is the difference between this one http://www.apmex.com/product/39598/1-oz-gold-buffalo-random-year and this one http://www.apmex.com/product/11951/1-oz-pamp-suisse-gold-bar-9999-fine-in-assay...I bought the previous one before... and how do you make payments? do you use credit card or wire? looks like using wire is cheaper but I have never used wire transfers in my life before.

Don't buy coins. They cost more since they are more expensive to make. Buy bars. Pamp Suisse and Credit Suisse are the more expensive brands. They cost more than a regular Apmex bar. The reason being they are easier to sell. Anyways 24K gold is 24K gold no matter the brand. Wire transfer is quick but ya bank will charge ya a wire transfer fee. Check with ya bank. It's easy. Apmex will send ya their bank wire transfer info. You walk into ya bank or ya can also do wire xfers thesedays online using ya bank website after ya login.

Has anyone purchased through apmex.com, what does it mean by bid price and ask price.  I wanted to purchase about 5 of them but the price is different from bidding price and also I am thinking about mailing them personal check. I would love to hear someone's experience and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Honestly, I have not bought from their website but a friend of mine had suggested me so I forwarded to you. As Harkey said, no need to worry about wire transfer. They are reliable company and have been in business for long time. If you have any questions regarding bid and ask you can just call customer service and I am sure they will explain. Good luck. I guess I will wait for a while to place an order until it goes down to $1100 or so:)

You sure it's gonna drop down to 1100? Can anyone bid in that website?

Why buy gold when you can buy a gold producing company's stock for so cheap. Take a look at IAG- Currently sells for 3.2. Book value is 9.75. Its like buying a Ford Mustang car that is worth 6000 dollars according to KBB.COM for only 2000 dollars from someone through craigslist or something. 

Looser, Of course I am not sure, if I were so expert to be sure, I would have already become Millionaire by now :) I was just telling based on some of the research reports and media which are saying that it could go around $1000 in 2014 but I am not going to wait until then. Beautifool, ASIC/OZ of IAG is very high, >$1200, AUY seems better in this kind of volatile environment when the price can go 20% further down next year. AUY is a low cost miner and its ASIC/Oz is <800 do you agree? I was also thinking about AU, EGO etc but not sure which one is better. Probably I should just buy GDX which is a basket of true miners which way I can mitigate the risk. Other friends and experts, please advise if you have any idea.

I bought these IAG shares for the purpose of Tax selling and January effect. I've read many times about stocks being sold in the month of December for tax purposes. This stock fit the criteria with it going though 52 week low and book value is much more than what the market is pricing. I hope this is one of the stocks that will make the assumption right about tax selling. And I plan to sell it in January or Feb. It if continues to go down, I'll add few more. Here's something that helped me to be really encouraged. And only bought 300 instead of 3000. Pretty close for "key dates" to expire. 

However on a positive note, Credit Suisse adds that once this downward pressure subsides, these stocks are likely to experience a price reversal. Year-to-date, the S&P/TSX 60 Index is up 7.8%, followed closely by the S&P/TSX Composite Index, which has increased 7.4%. Led by financials, non-resource cyclicals (i.e., financials (ex-REITs), industrials, consumer discretionary and technology) exhibited strong market leadership and the dividend yield arbitrage with defensives (i.e., pipelines, utilities, telecoms and REITs) has paid off handsomely this year.

Meantime, resource focused sub-indices posted double digit losses this year - S&P/TSX Global Gold and S&P/TSX Capped Materials. Conversely, the S&P/TSX Venture Index posted a significant 23.4% decline. Year-to-date, the S&P/TSX Composite Index is weighted heavily towards winners, with 131 gainers, 105 decliners and one unchanged. At this time last year, the winners also outnumbered the losers, with 145 gainers, 103 decliners, and one unchanged. The larger-cap S&P/TSX 60 Index is also weighted towards winners, with 41 gainers, 18 decliners and one unchanged. At this time last year, the winners also outnumbered the losers, with 36 gainers, 23 decliners, and one unchanged. The worst- and best-performing equities are the typically ones to monitor. 

Key dates for 2013:
Tuesday, December 24, 2013 is the last day for tax-loss selling for Canadian taxpayers selling Canadian equities. There are virtually no alternatives if you leave trades beyond this date.

Thursday, December 26, 2013 is the last day for tax-loss selling of U.S. equities for Canadian taxpayers. Once again there are no alternatives should you wait beyond this date.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013 is the last day for tax-loss selling for U.S. taxpayers for Canadian and U.S. securities."

IAG up almost 10 per cent @ 3.48 from 3.2 per stock I paid for few days ago. My prediction is that gold price will go up until the first few months of 2014 and then the price will slide back again. Will see. I've been wrong many times so take it easy.