ETFs, futures, mining stocks — none of them are gold. The case for owning the metal itself.
Gold ETFs, futures contracts and mining shares all give exposure to the gold price. None of them give you gold. The distinction sounds pedantic until the moment a counterparty fails, an exchange halts trading, or a fund manager rehypothecates the underlying. In each of those moments the physical bar in your name behaves differently from the entry in someone else's ledger.
Holding physical metal carries a cost: storage, insurance, and a wider buy-sell spread than the paper alternatives. In return you remove the entire layer of counterparty risk that defines every financial-system asset. That is not a hedge against day-to-day volatility — it is a hedge against the financial system itself.
“Holding physical metal carries a cost: storage, insurance, and a wider buy-sell spread than the paper alternatives.”
Most of our clients hold a mix. Paper gold for trading; physical gold for permanence. The right ratio depends on the role gold is playing in the portfolio.
We will happily talk through the trade-offs without pressure to buy.
