Page 80 - Introduction to investing in Gold

The Beginner's Guide to Investing in Gold
What’s the Difference Between an ETF and Holding Physical Gold?
Form
Gold ETFs are held in electronic form (in a similar manner to holding shares). You can think of it as a bank account where you have a balance in your account but do not hold the money physically.
In the case of physical gold, you hold the gold physically (albeit you will probably have it stored by the organisation you bought it from), so there are storage and insurance costs to consider. These costs are normally embedded in the price of your ETF shares. Typically, gold ETFs are a low- cost way of getting exposure to the gold price, which is one reason why they’re so popular.
Tax
You might need to speak to a tax adviser about this. There may be differences between holding physical gold and ETFs. Ask your adviser whether investing in an ETF or physical gold will impact you from a tax perspective.
Delivery
Even though ETFs may be backed by gold, in the event of a financial crisis, you may not be able to take delivery of physical gold. For example, in the case of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the largest and most popular gold ETF, the trustee handles the creation and redemption of the orders for the Trust's shares with “Authorised Participants”, who deal in blocks of 100,000 SPDR® Gold Shares. At a gold price of US$1,900/Oz, 100,000 shares could be worth a lot of money (well over US$1m). Again, you need to be very careful of the rules!
A gold ETF often reserves the right to settle your delivery request in cash – which might defeat the object of why you want to hold the shares in the first place.
Why are ETFs Appealing to Investors if You Don’t Actually Own Any Gold?
I don’t want you to completely ignore ETFs. I have issues with them, but in many cases, they could work for you. You just need to be aware of the issues. Like any investment vehicle, they have their advantages:
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