Hi All

[Guest gbug]

I've read about gold with interest for 15 years or more and see strong links with many macroeconomic factors.

Most people today no longer keep a 5 or 10% investment in precious metals. You have to go out of your way to look for an investment vehicle that will let you do that, do your own trading, or get a self directed fund with sufficient flexibility to invest in mining shares or ETFs for example.

Since Greenspan dropped the "irrational exuberance" bomb things have been getting steadily worse for the whole fiat currency world.

None of today's currencies are gold backed, and new money can be created at will without having to have anything backing it.

If you understood the situation after "irrational exuberance" and the accompanying secular bottom in gold, and invested around the bottom (I bought a little afterwards, the bottom was around $252 but I started buying around $320, which represents a holding valued now 419% higher. I think there is more to go in the gold bull market due to unresolved problems with debt and fiat currencies. But you have to beware the short term fluctuations and have a strategy to avoid getting stopped out, or getting on the wrong side of a move.

[Guest gbug]

This is very interesting... there is a proposal by the FDIC for gold to be reclassified as a risk-free investment:

http://www.valuewalk.com/2012/06/gold-could-be-classified-as-risk-free-asset-by-bank-regulators/

"...as I wrote in The Canary in the Gold Mine, if gold is re-classified as a zero-risk-weighted asset, “the price is likely to soar to a new, all-time high.” I stand by that statement. In about six months we will know whether I am right..."

If adopted, the change takes effect on 1st January 2013. Less than 6 months from now.