holy shit! gold is at $807.60
 

christ! i remmebr a few months ago it was at like 600.

unreal. will we see 1000?

everything is up. silver platinum and paladium

I've been buying since 2005 when it was 400 something. Silver is the big one though. Hasnt made the big move yet but it's coming soon..just gotta crack 15/oz and it will be headed to 25 by spring.

Historically every paper currency goes to zero. Gold in worst case just preserves your buying power rather than seeing it whittled away by inflation. Nevermind the governments cooked CPI numbers..real inflation is around 13% right now. The gov stopped publishing the M3 numbers March 2006 so we have no idea what's really going on anymore. This guy is good at extrapolating from other sources:
http://www.shadowstats.com

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value -- zero."

- Voltaire

Umm, HOLY SHIT, the US dollar is almost a peso. The value of gold expressed in a weak currency isn't as impressive as all that.

Go back and recalculate the value of gold in euros over the last 4 years and then come back and explain to the class how gold hasn't gone up all that much.

http://www.the-privateer.com/chart/usgmonth.html

If you bought and held in 1980 you would still be at a loss AND add 3%pa inflation on top of that. Ride the wave while it lasts but gold is not a buy and hold asset.

Sure it is - if your goal is to have a portion of your wealth that is stable against world currencies.

Every serious investor has at leas a portion of his portfolio in gold assets, I'm sure.

Although gold and commodities provide inflation protection, no serious investor would buy and hold them because of their cyclical and non upward bias.

http://www.kitco.com/LFgif/au75-pres.gif

But you seem to be talking about long periods of time. If you bought a shitload of gold back in 2000, it would be looking like a pretty good investment right about now wouldn't it?

I disagree.

You're not going to make much at all by investing in gold, but that's not why you invest in gold.

Anyone serious about hedging their investments would always have at least a small portion of their wealth invested in gold. You don't put money in gold to make money - you put money in gold to keep it.

Not that I have a Berkeley degree or anything (yet), but this is what I've heard wealthy investors say time and time again when I've had the opportunity and opted to listen.

But then... I'm not an invester, myself, with millions to toss into the market (again... yet), so what the hell do I know? :)

Yes I'm referring to long term buy & hold. Gold and commodities should be approached with a trend following methodology rather than long term buy and hold. Take oil for example. It'a also having a massive bull run. Just need proper entry/exit stategies to not get caught buying at the peak and hoping (for many many years) for a turnaround.

http://www.wtrg.com/oil_graphs/oilprice1947.gif

The gold is up a bit, but the US$ is down a lot ....

That is why it looks like it is up so much .... for US people.

Investors buy gold because it is inversely correlated to stocks (like bonds). When stocks go down, investors move into gold and bonds as their prices go up. However gold and other commodities have cyclical prices without an upward bias. Simply put the purpose of investing is to grow your principal investment. Even if it means growing it in pace with inflation (maintaining your buying power), you still need a positive return. If you happened to be unlucky with your timing and you bought in 1980 at $750 you would have had to hold until now to make profit or sell at a loss in between.

gold is always a long term thing, preservation not speculation

2,000 years ago an ounce of gold bought you a toga and a pair of hand crafted shoes at the market, today it will buy you a decent suit in a deptartment store and a pair of shoes, so nothing much has changed

I bought when it was 347 and sold everything at 735, yeah should have held onto it but I can't bitch at all. Best money I have made other then buying lots that went from 3K to 50K in 2 years :)

Gold isn't just preservation in the long term, but also for preservation against currency dips. It is also a way to make relative money in a declining currency market.

If you are an American, and bought gold a few years back, you have managed to insulate yourself from the sinking US dollar. Done correctly, you sell out the gold near it's peak in the next 6 - 8 months, and convert it back to other US dollar value assets. You will have made more US dollars in a few years, and when the US dollar regains it's relative value to other currencies, you will have also gained net REAL value.

I swear, I could almost invest based solely on political climates and who is on office. Just a few years ago, gold was down to $300 an ounce. That was the time to buy, that time is over now. But silver was where the money was to be made. $6 forever... then it took off recently and I agree, it still ain't gone as far as it will go.