gold bullion bars gold coins for investment gold for thought investing in gold investment tips

If you aren’t already sitting on a pot of gold – then I’d suggest you start considering to do that. 

I was having a chat with my Mom the other day (you know the usual – when are you planning on getting married conversation) and the topic of gold came about.  I teased her that she better start thinking of plating all her gold jewellery to white gold for me since I’m not a big fan of the bright gold colour.

She just looked at me like I was the most irresponsible person ever and asked me if I had checked the most recent stock market rates for a gold bullion (which of course I hadn’t and then immediately wished I had money to buy bullion in the first place)

For those of you wondering what a bullion is – "it refers to any precious metal in a form in which its primary value comes from the worth of the metal; and is most often traded in the form of coins minted by national governments”

Side note : determining the price of gold isn’t as easy as it seems especially after the research I did to spot the gold price !

If you are thinking about ways to build a solid investment for your future, or diversifying your portfolio - buy gold bullion – without any doubt !  The easiest way being to start investing in gold jewellery.  I know I have to start purchasing gold jewellery even though I prefer platinum !

Damn, where’s a rainbow when you really need one ?

Further Reading :

1. Spot The Gold Price
2. Gold For Thought
3. What Is A Bullion

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A couple of months ago I had written a post called ‘Gold For Thought’ and so far all the markets are pointing towards gold being the best form of investment.  I haven’t invested in any myself but my mother is all about the gold (then again she’s Indian and I can’t expect anything less of her)

It’s a known fact that gold is the only commodity traded all over the world and doesn’t lose value as easily as other investment products and hence provides guaranteed returns in the long run.

I’m a curious little diva and decided to find out a bit more about how one goes about determining the price of gold; and its not as straight forward as it seems – especially for a newbie ! 

Gold is measured by troy weight and grams; with 24 carats being pure gold.  The gold price or spot gold price is actually determined twice a day in London by a group of 5 banks.  This is a procedure known as the Gold Fixing, and  provides a daily benchmark price to the industry.  The Gold Fixing is conducted twice a day by telephone in Pound Sterling (£), Euro (€) and USD ($), at 10:30 GMT and 15:00 GMT.

The first fixing took place on 12 September 1919 amongst the five principal gold bullion traders and refiners of the day: N M Rothschild & Sons, Mocatta & Goldsmid, Pixley & Abell, Samuel Montagu & Co. and Sharps Wilkins.

The gold spot or the "spot price" of gold is the amount you would pay to obtain gold at that particular period in time i.e. the cash price you are willing to pay for gold.  Somewhat paradoxically, the spot price of gold is determined by how much people are willing to pay for gold in the future. (hey I never said it would make sense if you weren’t in the market!)

To determine the best gold prices – one must compare the difference between the ‘bid’ and the ‘ask’ price quoted by different dealers.  In layman's terms one must find out how much a dealer will pay for your gold and how much they will sell it to you for.  The dealer that quotes the lowest spread between the bid and the ask will most likely give the best price when you actually make a trade.

This post was an educational journey for me … over the last few years I have been active in the stock and mutual fund market; and with the current economy, it only seems logical to start investing in a commodity as solid as gold. 

If you have any tips about gold investments, please share them with us :)