5 ms·

It would be nice to see if there is not more gold "sold" to investors than there actually is.

by fest 14y ago

nostromo 14y ago
If that were the case, we could just declare that gold has been taken off of the gold standard.
- phyalow 14y ago
  Repo's, gold certificates etc. Good luck getting "your" physical allocation if everyone tried to take delivery of "there" of the underlying assets all at once.
  - daniel-cussen 14y ago
    This is the original form of a bank run: everybody wants to cash the goldsmiths oversold certificates at the same time.
fauigerzigerk 14y ago
I doubt that is the case in any great quantity. Many investors who buy gold do it because they think it is somehow safer than "paper money". They don't like to buy "paper gold" and that's why the biggest gold ETF (GLD) stores physical gold. That said, there is of course a gold derivatives market. It seems to be rather small according to the survey cited in this article: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/eb342ad4-daba-11e0-a58b-00144feabdc0.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/eb342ad4-daba-11e0-a58b-00144... (search for the link in Google to get around the paywall)
aneth4 14y ago
There most likely is. Even when the USD was on the gold standard, there were far more of these gold claim certificates we called dollars than the US had in gold reserves. This is the nature of fractional reserve banking, and it no doubt still takes place with gold.
- trhtrsh 14y ago
  But a key difference is that I have gold in my vault, and you have an oversold "gold" certificate, you can lose, but I can't. When I have a dollar bill in my pocket, and the government floods the country with new dollar debt, my dollar inflates.
  - chiph 14y ago
    Make sure your gold doesn't have a tungsten center. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-24/get-your-fake-tungsten-filled-gold-coins-here http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-24/get-your-fake-tungs... AFAIK, the only way to make certain is via destructive physical inspection (drill a hole in it).

It would be nice to see if there is not more gold "sold" to investors than there actually is.

by fest 14y ago

It would be nice to see if there is not more gold "sold" to investors than there actually is.

nostromo 14y ago

If that were the case, we could just declare that gold has been taken off of the gold standard.

phyalow 14y ago
Repo's, gold certificates etc. Good luck getting "your" physical allocation if everyone tried to take delivery of "there" of the underlying assets all at once.
- daniel-cussen 14y ago
  This is the original form of a bank run: everybody wants to cash the goldsmiths oversold certificates at the same time.

fauigerzigerk 14y ago

I doubt that is the case in any great quantity. Many investors who buy gold do it because they think it is somehow safer than "paper money". They don't like to buy "paper gold" and that's why the biggest gold ETF (GLD) stores physical gold. That said, there is of course a gold derivatives market. It seems to be rather small according to the survey cited in this article: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/eb342ad4-daba-11e0-a58b-00144feabdc0.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/eb342ad4-daba-11e0-a58b-00144... (search for the link in Google to get around the paywall)

aneth4 14y ago

There most likely is. Even when the USD was on the gold standard, there were far more of these gold claim certificates we called dollars than the US had in gold reserves. This is the nature of fractional reserve banking, and it no doubt still takes place with gold.

trhtrsh 14y ago
But a key difference is that I have gold in my vault, and you have an oversold "gold" certificate, you can lose, but I can't. When I have a dollar bill in my pocket, and the government floods the country with new dollar debt, my dollar inflates.
- chiph 14y ago
  Make sure your gold doesn't have a tungsten center. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-24/get-your-fake-tungsten-filled-gold-coins-here http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-24/get-your-fake-tungs... AFAIK, the only way to make certain is via destructive physical inspection (drill a hole in it).