Gold price collapse is the worst for 30 years

[AtW]

" Gold will finish the year as one of the worst-performing asset classes, bringing to an end a decade-long rally in the precious metal.

Gold has suffered its sharpest fall in 30 years, down almost 28pc over the past 12 months to close 2013 at about $1,200 (£725) an ounce.

That compares badly against other assets, with the S&P 500 up 28pc, the FTSE 100 gaining around 13pc and Brent crude oil futures up about 2.5pc in the same period.

“Equities have won the battle over gold for investors’ money this year,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said. Last year, Mr Hansen correctly predicted that gold would finish the year at $1,200 and for 2014 he is forecasting that prices may have already bottomed out. "

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[Zero Liability]

Good, just a bit more and I'll be buying it and silver.

Japan may be a good buy as far as equities go, still cheap and with potential to go up nicely with their own spin on QE going on there.

[RSoles]

Agreed, even after the five year bull run on shares, gold hasn't fallen enough to make it interesting.

[BigRed]

I always feel uneasy about gold. It has very few real uses and only became valuable because it was a convenient means of representing a value. Now the world economy isn't officially tied to gold there is no reason for it to hold it's value, although many countries hold reserves and prop up the price by restricting sales.

[ASB]

Good, just a bit more and I'll be buying it and silver.

Japan may be a good buy as far as equities go, still cheap and with potential to go up nicely with their own spin on QE going on there.

Long 800 ish middle of the year is my plan. It may not get there of course but I expect more downside.

[Zero Liability]

Same here, the correction still has some way to go and none of the major governments have really solved their problems, so I'll definitely be buying when it's cheaper. Are you going for physical gold, and if so, for sovereigns? If you're expecting gold's value to rise significantly in the future, they're exempt from CGT provided the laws don't change, and the premium on them is c.5%.

Silver is already cheap and platinum is also looking pretty good. The only thing is that if you own one of the PM the diversification offered by owning another one is minimal, as they tend to move in similar directions, and if there's any prospect of currency reforms, it'll feature gold over any of the other PMs. Silver simply has a dwindling supply and demand that isn't going to vanish, so sometime in the future it could pick up quite nicely.

Gold mining stocks are apparently also looking cheap but I'd need to look further into which specific ones are poised to perform well.

[ASB]

There is a lot more downside in the miners if gold falls. In some respects they might put a floor on pog due to production costs. I have some small miners on my watchlist. They should get a decent bounce when pog turns.

If I do build a long it will be a leveraged position in my spread bet account.

though I can see a potential two tier market developed over time. Physical and paper. Particularly if the us have rehypothecated some of the german gold that they are talking about bringing back.

[Zero Liability]

Any miners of note?

I am now starting to get to the point where I have decent amounts left for investing, so I am intent on first building up a position in physical gold and silver (maybe BTC as it could surge significantly as well), and then looking at other asset classes such as equities once I've built up one to my satisfaction.

[ASB]

Mml, pog, fres, kaz. Not all goldies of course, but on the watchlist for possible entries.

dont really understand why you want to buy your own physical. Storage costs, provenance on resale, etc are possible issues. Especially if self stored.

btc is hugely volatile and a chart looks very similar to tulips.

[scooterscot]

Bitcoins

are the way forward for a quick buck.