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What is “The ‘British Columbia Gold Bank’ Now Open to American Investors?”

Sleuthing out Ian Wyatt's "Why I'm Selling Gold" teaser for a "BC Gold Bank"

“One unique type of gold investment (that most Americans have never heard of) based in British Columbia has outperformed every asset class in existence – rising twice as fast as gold.

“The average investor in this gold secret made over 80% a year for 20 straight years – even after gold crashed last year.

“But some investors had the chance to make 3,000%+ gains…

“I call this investment the ‘British Columbia Gold Bank’ because it’s a super-safe way to invest in gold.”

That’s the intro from Ian Wyatt for the latest teaser pitch seeking subscribers to his $100K Portfolio newsletter, one of the many newsletters that cropped up over the past few years which runs a “real money” portfolio of the editor or publisher’s actual cash in the market.

Wyatt has been sparking interest among readers with emails that have subject lines hinting at why he’s selling gold — and he says he wants to sell gold and buy this particular “British Columbia Gold Bank.” So that’s getting attention because gold has fallen so hard and so fast, and investors are wondering just what to do with this asset that had seemed — for more than a decade now — like it could only go up.

And he implies a high level of safety for this investment, which also makes Gumshoe readers see green — here’s how he puts it:

“CNBC recently called this investment ‘a banker for gold miners.’

“As I’ll explain, gold banks have all of the upside of gold – with none of the downside – and the potential for much faster gains.”

None of the downside? That’s a big claim. So what’s he talking about?

Well, it’s a Canadian investment — he tells us all about how Vancouver is the “Wall Street of Commodities”, which is more or less true … that British Columbian City is home of what used to be the Vancouver Stock Exchange and is now the Venture Exchange (though I think it’s actually headquartered in Calgary now, the Venture is the combination of the Alberta and Vancouver exchanges), but it’s certainly a hotbed of junior mining and energy financing in Canada, which itself is the land where most mining startups get their sea legs. Vancouver is the silicon valley for venture investments, IPOs, and backdoor deals in the natural resources industries.

Here’s more from the ad:

“Thousands of small exploration companies vie for limited access to capital – many of them go bust.

“These small companies are the lottery tickets of the investment world.

“And they all need funding.

“That’s where the British Columbia Gold banks come in.

“They provide funding to the BEST possible precious metal startups – the explorers and developers with a track record of success, the best property, the best reserves, etc.

“In exchange, these ‘Gold Banks’ receive a portion of the future production and proceeds of any gold mined during the entire lifespan of the company.

“And the best resource analysts in the world all work in Vancouver – for one little-known gold bank…”

And then Wyatt lets the cat out of the bag a wee bit — telling us what probably most Gumshoe readers already know, that these “BC Gold Banks” are really just precious metals streaming and royalty companies. He even gives the examples of a couple companies that most investors are familiar with, the silver streamer Silver Wheaton (SLW) and the big gold royalty company Royal Gold (RGLD) … but he has another fish in mind:

“You can’t buy past performance.

“Royal Gold just isn’t going to grow another 2000-fold anytime soon. That would make it a $3 trillion market cap company. It would be bigger than the top 5 biggest companies in the Dow put together. It’s just not going to happen.

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“Silver Wheaton isn’t likely to grow another 20 fold in the next three years either. That would make it a $140 billion company – bigger than BP (NYSE: BP).

“So if you want to achieve a similar result in your portfolio, you have to find the next Royal Gold and the next Silver Wheaton.

“Such a company already exists – and if you buy it today, you give yourself a great chance at repeating the performance of its forebears.

“This company is only about 4 years old and it is already off to a better start than Royal Gold in its first 4 years.

“That’s because this other ‘gold bank’ already has 10 gold streams producing with more coming online early in 2014 yet it has a total market cap under $600 million.

“And amazingly – they’ve put together deals with their 10 gold streaming clients to ensure they get access to any gold they mine for an average of $400 an ounce…”

OK, so that clears it up pretty well — we don’t even have to take the tarps off of the ol’ Thinkolator to tell you that Ian Wyatt is buying and teasing Sandstorm Gold (SAND in NY, SSL in Toronto)

Which I own as well, and have written about many times here — it’s been teased by other newsletters, and I’ve bought and sold the stock and the warrants a few times since the company was founded, but it is still a substantial position for me and my favorite gold equity investment.

But it sure ain’t a stock that gives you upside with “none of the downside” — those of us who have held the stock for a few years can certainly attest to the upside, but we’ve also felt the downside when gold prices fall.

All of the royalty stocks and streaming stocks, large and small, have fallen very, very hard with the collapse in gold prices — they provide some leverage to the price of gold as it rises, and also the downside of leverage as they fall harder than the gold price when gold declines. I’ve been a bit surprised, actually, to see that the royalty companies have not done much better than the average large mining stocks during this latest collapse in the price of gold — they’re better companies, with less downside than the miners in a normal operating environment, but they either got too expensive when people ran to them (they rose to trade at a marked premium to the big miners in terms of cash flow or earnings) or they got sold off too aggressively because everyone fled any investment with “gold” in its name.

Sandstorm does indeed get to buy gold for an average of $400 an ounce (roughly — it’s probably a bit higher than that now), but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily going to be profitable if gold falls to $800 or $700 per ounce. That’s because they’re a passive partner in the mines — and they don’t get to decide whether or not the miners produce, or how much they produce in any given year.

If you’re not familiar with this passive model, there are basically two kinds of these “gold bank” investments — royalties and streamers.

Royalties are generally a small net participation in the mine, either the full output or the output of a particular mineral (ie, a few percent of the NSR, or net smelter return, of gold from the mine). Royalties are sometimes sold by miners as a way to finance early development or exploration, and sometimes are earned by landowners or early prospectors.

Streaming deals are generally for a larger share of the production but they also require an ongoing payment — in the case of Sandstorm Gold or their progenitor, Silver Wheaton, they pay up front to help fund the mine construction or late stage exploration and receive the right to purchase a large portion of the mine’s output of the metal in question, often 10-25%, at a set price well below the market price. In practice, these are larger deals with bigger up-front payments, and they are usually done only when the mine is pretty close to production or expansion — needing just a big chunk of change for construction or final permitting or whatever the case might be.

Most companies in this mine finance space do at least a bit of each kind of deal — Sandstorm is primarily focused on streaming deals but they do have a few royalties, including some that they made as small deals that included a “right of first refusal” on any future streaming deals. Royal Gold is primarily a royalty company, but does have a few “streaming” deals as well. No one “owns” the idea or the concept, the reason there aren’t hundreds of these companies is that the market is fairly small, but also because you need a capital base from which to make those initial deals and build that portfolio of royalties or streaming deals, and it’s tough to grow until those deals start to generate cash flow that you can then commit to buying new deals and financing new mines.

The CEO of Sandstorm Gold, Nolan Watson, timed his formation of the company pretty well in what turned out to be the early days of gold’s run from $700-$1,900, and, perhaps more importantly, he made good deals that were close to generating cash — including one early deal that has become a much larger mine than anticipated and which generates the largest slice of their cash today (that’s Luna’s Aurizona mine in Brazil). Watson came from Silver Wheaton, where he helped to perfect the model of the public streaming company as a very young CFO, so he doubtless had good connections and good experience in finding and evaluating deals, but he also got a bit of luck in those early years. The company grew quite nicely but gradually early on, signing larger and larger deals and eventually growing the company large enough to make a NY listing feasible (it formerly traded only at SSL on the venture exchange, then graduated to the Toronto exchange before getting the SAND listing in New York).

The basic argument for the streaming and royalty companies is that unlike gold mining, they’re not terrible and unpredictable businesses — miners are often awful at managing costs, meeting deadlines, and handling the financial side of things, and they’re also subject to several things outside their control that dramatically impact their results, like natural forces (flooding of mines, etc), energy costs (mines suck up lots of electricity and diesel fuel), and labor costs, all of which can change dramatically in the many years between when the mine is initially drawn up and the time when it hits commercial production.

But streamers and royalty owners don’t really care about production costs, they care about production levels — they get their share of the output at a fixed price, so whether the mine’s cash costs of production are $400 an ounce or $1,000 an ounce doesn’t matter to them. It matters intensely to the miners themselves, of course, since that’s their profit margin, but, at least in theory, the passive financiers don’t have to care whether the mine is profitable — they get their ounces of gold, in Sandstorm’s case, for anywhere between $350-500 an ounce, depending on which deal it is, so they profit even if gold falls dramatically lower.

The downside, beyond the fact that they obviously have lower profits if they buy at $350 and sell at $1,200 than if they can sell at $1,800, is the same as the upside: They are passive. They have no real say in the operation of the mine. And if the miner is losing money for an extended period of time they may either slow production, slow expansion, or shut down the mine entirely until the economics (ie, the gold price or the input costs) improve. If the mine shuts down then the streamer or royalty owner may have some recourse if there’s a clause in the contract that they have to produce a certain amount by a certain date, but that’s not always the case and any such clauses tend only to cut losses, not guarantee profits.

It’s very hard to rely on analyst estimates for these companies, because those estimates obviously depend on the analyst’s vision for gold prices in the next year or two, but currently SAND carries a trailing PE ratio of over 50 and a forward PE of about 15, with analysts expecting the company to earn 23 cents per share this year and 40 cents next year.

Analysts haven’t been getting the guesses very close to correct on this one, and we can be sure that if gold stays in the $1,200 neighborhood for the next year they’re definitely not going to earn 40 cents per share — but if we assume that all of their partners will keep up their production to match estimates over the next year they will see a steady increase in ounces of gold delivered as a few new mines begin to boost production. They also have some potential catalysts — their next Brazilian mine, Serra Pelada, begins production this Summer and finally releases a reserve statement to give some idea of what that large mine might produce over time, and the Deflector project in Australia is in a spot of financial bother (they have to raise their last cash just when it’s hard to finance mines) but should be able to start production soon as a low-cost producer, and both of those are expected to be meaningful producers for Sandstorm within two or three years.

Sandstorm’s estimates are that they will go from an estimated 35-40,000 ounces of gold this year to 70,000 ounces in 2016, and they are becoming more diversified as more new mines grow and come online, so there is a strong growth potential and they do pay a low average price of probably $450 for those ounces (the later, larger deals they signed are generally for $500 an ounce, bringing the average up a bit) — but with average all-in costs of gold production for most big miners in the neighborhood of $1,200-1,300 an ounce this is a pretty critical price point. If mines shut down or pause development, they’ll be in trouble, but Sandstorm’s focus has generally been to make deals with lower-cost producers so they should be OK as long as prices don’t fall below the $1,000-1,200 range.

“OK” doesn’t mean hugely profitable, though, it just means they should be profitable or at least breaking even and generating some positive cash flow — their profits would be dramatically higher if you can use a $1,800 gold price estimate. On the flip side, they do have close to $100 million in cash and another $100 million in a line of credit, so they have some flexibility to sign good deals with desperate miners right now — which, if you assume that gold will eventually recover, could lead to even better growth. Money is very tight in the mining industry these days, so they are, at least, in a strong bargaining position for new deals they make.

So I can’t say that Wyatt’s right about this pick having “none of the downside” of gold, because we’ve clearly seen that if gold falls the royalty and streaming companies can fall even further (gold fell about 25% over six months, SAND fell 50% as a result) — but I still prefer SAND to their larger competitors RGLD and Franco-Nevada (FNV), and I think they should be in reasonable financial shape as long as gold remains firmly above $1,000 and their partners keep mining. And that leverage that brought the price down works both ways, so if you think gold recovers or resumes the push upward to $2,000 an ounce, Sandstorm will be extremely profitable. Hopefully after having made some lucrative deals at these relatively low gold prices.

What do you think? Will the continued absence of inflation mean gold stays low or falls further, or will the continued efforts by every central bank to devalue their currencies eventually work and drive more investors or savers to gold as a store of value or “safe haven” refuge? I keep some of my savings and portfolio in gold because it has held its value over the long term, but “long term” when it comes to the enduring value of and human interest in gold has often meant decades, not weeks or months or even, as we’ve seen recently, years. I’ve written to the Irregulars recently that the fall in gold has led me to think that I should be rebalancing a bit and adding some to my holdings in the metal or in Sandstorm or one of the other royalty companies, but I haven’t had the gumption to actually do so.

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peejay
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peejay
July 13, 2013 2:42 pm

There’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer! It was not a negative comment, rather a positive one.

No, I don’t trust any politician. That was a full stop. I do admire your level of trust though. I hope they don’t let you down. They will, but I still hope they don’t. Look at the election results almost anywhere in the Western World for the past decade – 51% for them, 49% for the other. It has to tell you something. It tells me that there is no difference which one you vote in. They are both (all) the same – self-serving. It’s just human nature.

They won’t be loading my gold onto any trucks, that’s for sure (at least not without my say-so), but I do hope that you are right in writing that it will be banned. Hopefully soon, as the price needs to be sky-high if the central banks are to use it to back their paper currencies. Like I wrote before, dictatorship by the back door. Hitler made sure he had plenty of gold. That’s how he paid off the Swiss for allowing the Nazis to cross Switzerland with their armaments during WWII. I know he lost, but it proves there’s always a buyer. Don’t underestimate Au. Jews with gold made it over the Swiss border from Germany – those without got turned back. A rotten world sometimes, but you have to be prepared.

However I am not advocating gold as the be all and end all. No money is superfluous, at least that is until they put you into a coffin. It’s only one asset, and I agree with you wholeheartedly about land. You need a place to put your gold (only kidding!)!!! Having a house on it is a different matter. Taxes on that, you know. But one has to live somewhere, and living in your own property is usually cheaper than renting – usually. Just remember – you cannot move property, and it can be difficult, long-winded, and expensive to turn it back into something more liquid. Ask a poor sod who’s had his/her house repossessed. I know the British think it’s a sure thing, but it’s no more a sure thing than gold. Property is another good hedge against inflation. That’s all, unless you live in it. You might come back at me with property prices in Cambridge, but I would have to mention Ulster, or central Newcastle, or… Most of the properties that changed hands in the last couple of decades should have had capital gains tax paid on the profit, but didn’t. A bonanza, but you would have made 1000% on changing Sterling into Swiss Francs in the last 20 years or so, without moving a muscle. As an aside, I would certainly not be buying property in the UK or USA now. Land perhaps (not sure), but certainly not property. So take care where you buy property. Rhodesia looked extremely good for a while…

We do have a farm (see, we agree), albeit a small one, just in case we need to eat as well! Currently we live there for under 6 months a year, as we can still buy food where we like. It is not by a lake (it does have water), but it has a good view of the sea. Not sure about the cows though. Are you sure you’re not a dreamer?!

You know, gold is not only for those who don’t want to inform a tax-man of their wealth. Some who own it inform him (just don’t keep it in the same country as you live in), and the rest of us don’t have a tax-man to inform. Now you can be jealous!

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Alan Harris
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Alan Harris
July 13, 2013 5:02 pm
Reply to  peejay

No taxman! Where do you live, on a private island????

Alan Harris
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Alan Harris
July 13, 2013 7:04 pm

We could bat this around forever. Best investments change like the wind as you’ve demonstrated by citing Swiss francs over 20yrs. Only 6 months ago I read a gazillion articles predicting gold was going to $2500 (or was it $25,000)…..it’s now half that. Ill bet those who listened are thrilled with that advice…..not ! Of course, if the wind changes it may go to 25k. I’m glad for you that you have all those paperweights stashed away.
I wasn’t actually talking about property. But…. Houses in Ulster, Newcastle or anywhere else in UK havent gone down 40% in the last 6 months like gold has…. houses in London are booming. Rhodesia may have looked good until they stopped electing their crooked politicians and got even more crooked freedom fighters instead.
Who wants houses to be liquid? (so long as you own them outright). They’ll return rental income month after month after year, so long as there’s a growing aspirational population. The 30% ‘interest’ on the loan (from your own off shore account) is tax deductible, as are the decoration and plumbing bills, plus its a great way to export capital in the form of monthly ‘loan’ repayments. How much interest did you earn from from gold last month?
I bought my house for 42k….I recently sold it for £2.5mil. Not quite swiss franc returns, but not too shabby. How much has gold increased over the same 20yr period? I used it to buy my 2 kids their first apartments. This was a great investment (if you still see them) coz they dont keep popping round to tap me for a loan that will never be repaid, plus it will save them £1000 pm (every month for life) which will take a lot of financial stress out of their lives, stop them divorcing and allow them to give me grandchildren the sooner. Bonus!!! I also bought a houseboat in central London to live on……swans peck on the window (porthole) every morning to be fed….heaven ! (no tax on buying/selling or living on a boat…yippee!).
Its not that I trust any politician…..its just that I accept they’re a necessary evil, so I shrug and get on with it. Whether you trust them or not, unless you really do live on a private island, they WILL affect you…..so vote! or better, stand for election. I guess you can add them to that list about death and taxes.
Hitler only had plenty of gold because he confiscated it (following WW1’s reparations to UK/US, Germany was skint)……Ill bet the owners also said: no one will get at mine without my say so. I wish you better luck in hiding it. But that was a long un-computerised time ago. These days (like numbered Swiss bank accounts) a squiggle on a G8 proclamation and the truck may be on its way to a vault in your area, or America’s politicians will economically cripple any un-co-operative country.
I hope you do buy some land and spread some joy by employing some of your countrymen to manage and work it instead of just leaving it as fallow as a gold bar. Who knows, it may even earn you a profit every month. Or perhaps think of it as a hedge against all that mumbo jumbo superstition: I did my bit St Peter….let me in !
My best, and if you’re ever in London you can buy me dinner 😉
Regards
Alan
Ps I mentioned the cows coz I cant abide the thought of becoming a veggie. Im also intending to grow tobacco and loco weed (if you can remember your early years cowboy films)

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peejay
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peejay
July 14, 2013 10:55 am

Hello Alan,

Do I live on a private island? No. There are more choices than that in the world. However, I feel you are so well rooted in the UK that you would click your heels together like Dorothy, and say “There’s no place like home”. The British are not a bad lot (nowadays), especially the Polish ones!

Houseboat. Had it right. Dreamer! Well done, Narrow boats, and especially Dutch barges are very beautiful – and moveable! However, a bit small to grow tobacco on. Are you allowed to grow 4 cannabis plants in London, before the forces that be get a bit stroppy? It’ll stop you thinking about becoming a vegetarian (please don’t even consider this – it’s similar to celibacy), or if you do, from thinking about what you’re forcing yourself to miss.

May the boats that pass you by drive slowly!

Kind regards
Paul

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Alan Harris
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Alan Harris
July 14, 2013 4:12 pm
Reply to  peejay

English actually….The British are foreigners…… especially the Polish ones.

Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
July 18, 2013 4:52 am
Reply to  peejay

Hi again, Paul Jessup and anyone else interested in gold,
I wasnt expecting to write again, but this hit my inbox. Its from an Economist I read. Its call Things that make you go Hmmm…. Its v long but v v interesting and well worth it. http://www.mauldineconomics.com/ttmygh/what-if
I think it means they have sold twice as much gold as exists…..perhaps you can translate it into English for me.
Enjoy
Alan

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Chad Graham
Member
July 18, 2013 7:16 pm
Reply to  Alan Harris

thank you for sharing this info. it is in line with our analysis….one part we never included though that makes the situation extremely dire is the divergence of available gold in storage and “the cloud” version which does not really exists except on the back of gold owners lending gold. in a nut shell leverage of 100/1 VS gold in storage has a major shortfall. furthermore, when large owners demand their gold to be delivered then gold in storage becomes less…in a way it means the leverage increases since the gold in circulation is decreasing. meaning when the “herd demands real gold for their futures contracts” their will be a shortage…a GIGANTIC shortage. Central banks which are mostly private owned and with the government support will confiscate your gold and print (QE)

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Chad Graham
Member
July 18, 2013 7:22 pm
Reply to  Chad Graham

that is why people are taking their bullion out of banks and other and its disappearing “into thin air” the clever money is avoiding governments forcing you to exchange your gold for FAIT currency. as governments according to the bill of exchange act are in contravention of the act, check your cash notes it says…”i promise to pay the bearer”. Governments are bankrupt and they are coming steal your families wealth…

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ed shannon
ed shannon
July 18, 2013 8:21 pm
Reply to  Chad Graham

I believe (from a faulty old memory) its Sprott that actually has gold, silver and platinum in a vault and you may be able to get your money in those precious metals.

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Chad Graham
Member
July 19, 2013 2:13 am
Reply to  Chad Graham

SPROTT is Canadian based company. your gold is not safe their. their are 2 ways to avoid your gold from been confiscated, you need to move it to a place like Switzerland and their are other destinations which we offer our private customers. the other way is to buy gold coin collectibles. for example we have dedicated a gold coins in memory of Nelson Mandela, the Rhino Extinction fund, memorial day of WWII and so fourth. these are collectibles and government cannot take them. our activities are private and not disclosed. and anyone with US$3000 dollars or more can get to own gold coin and keep it your wallet. the smallest coin we make is 1 gram do the maths. and you can order with your credit card to avoid foreign exchange restrictions that will be put into place soon. while their is no glss ball into the future. it is better to be safe and hedge your wealth. we advise clients to have at least 10% of their net worth in Gold and precious metals and gems. if you are a large cash holder then you should be at least 20% weighted with precious metals

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peejay
Member
peejay
July 19, 2013 3:45 pm
Reply to  Alan Harris

Hello my All-England friend!

Read all of the article, watched the video, and heard what Kaye and Cashin said. Very interesting, thank you for posting it. It was more precise that I could be, but exactly my sentiment (or a translation for you regarding the sale of non-existent gold) – we are being had – or at least they are trying it on. Smoke and mirrors.

As I wrote originally, only buy physical gold. Margin and leverage trading will soon be a loosers game. Gold is not expensive with regards to its cost of mining. I would have bought even more at US$1200/oz, but it seemed a bit excessive, as we already have a holding from years ago. I was waiting for a pull back to do that, and it came within 4 days of placing the order! However, if it goes down again, I will add to our stock, but I do not expect that really. In hindsight, gold has gone up nearly €2000 a kilo in the past three weeks, but that would not have helped me – my problem is that I will not sell any gold to make money at present. I will only do that when the powers that be start acting rationally, so it looks like a long wait! But it will be well worthwhile, methinks. There is a lot of Schadenfreude out there for holders of gold, but he who laughs last…

The article was very interesting in letting me know why others consider that the price has dived this year. I had explained it as huge puts by the central banks or their agents using these ETFs to lower the price (the price on Monday mornings was invariably depressed to put off the longs), so that they could replenish the physical stocks they don’t have – central banks have been huge buyers since 2012. I suppose this is basically the same thing, but other well thought out explanations are well received. Counter sales at the HK gold market have only been one way – sales. They have hardly bought an ounce from customers in 6 months.

Remember to keep your head whilst those around you are loosing theirs.

Paul

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Alan Harris
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Alan Harris
July 19, 2013 4:44 pm
Reply to  peejay

Hello my (?) friend.
Thanks for your warm greeting….I wish I could respond in kind but you play your cards too close to your chest for me to know.

Now I get it. They depress the price of physical by buying ETF puts. Meanwhile they scoop up physical on the relatively cheap till cupboard is full again. Then they will sell the puts rapido causing physical to rise furiously = net gain. Finally, they rent the physical gold back to the etf to cover its shortfall….= profit.
Neat.
PS: I assume loosers/loosing = losers/losing. Still an A* for investing aint bad 🙂

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peejay
Member
peejay
July 19, 2013 5:15 pm
Reply to  Alan Harris

You are not slow!
p.s. Must git an spill chukker.

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Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
July 19, 2013 4:50 am

I guess the ‘cloud’ is now the new fiat reality.

Politicians are infinitely devious.

Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
July 19, 2013 4:52 am
Reply to  Alan Harris

Ps I hope your gold is safer in a Swiss bank than your banking details have proved to be.

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Chad Graham
Member
July 19, 2013 5:23 am
Reply to  Alan Harris

lol…yeah..spoke like true and well seasoned investor….you know how it goes…best to learn from our mistakes otherwise we are destined to repeat them

Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
July 20, 2013 12:44 pm
Reply to  Chad Graham

Not intending to disparage what you say, but as Gumshoe and a million other threads demonstrate, there will always be an infinite number of speculative opinions especially about money (whatever that is). Here’s mine for what its worth….probably < a nickel.As I see it, initially, China never really expected their bonanza to take off like it has or last this long. As they were not sure of the political repercussions of turning towards capitalism, they squirreled their dosh away in the only place they could... the reserve $. Later, they decided the only way they could keep the boom going was to lend oodles of those $ to the West/US so that we could keep buying their cheap tat. However, they are now soooo invested in the $ that they can't be sure of ever getting it all back....if they suddenly asked for it all, the US would be bankrupt and the $ would crash. So, when you're in a hole, stop digging. But there's a huge problem.... where CAN they put it? Well, into commodities throughout the world earning lots of brownie points with 3rd world countries that can vote at various conferences and be manipulated through their self serving/corrupt leaders.... and, if push comes to shove, through sheer military bullying. At some stage, some dreamer realised they had a golden opportunity to tip the balance of power away from the West via a bloodless 'financial' coup/war. All they had to do was remove their funds gradually. That would progressively devalue the $ to such an extent that it could no longer hold the position of reserve currency. Gold/silver is the obvious replacement as it commands worldwide respect and has been proven over centuries. So they told their population to stockpile silver (which they have) while it bought gold (which they have). Where is most of the gold held....London metal exchange. Who should they talk to about buying more....? When they were asked what they wanted it all for, what would they say? Did someone in London whisper this? Who knows, but suddenly all the countries and all the banks began stock piling precious metal (and buying puts with their soon to be devalued paper, to keep short term prices down) Initially, China would appear to be shooting themselves in the foot by wrecking the $ coz their own $ deposits would plunge equally in value.....or would they? Ask yourself.... if all currencies equally devalued 99%, relatively, is your economy any worse off. No ! But now everyone needs a new reserve currency, against which the value of each individuals savings would worth 99% less. Certainly it's a cheap way to effect a new world order that the gun could never achieve short of wrecking the planet. But there has been a quantum tilt of late.....China now has its own middle classes who also want to buy what China makes with the commodities it now owns....and there's a darn site more of them to do the buying; so it will be far less dependent on selling to the West into the future.I dont think that the Yuan will ever be the reserve currency.....it doesn't have enough history to be trusted. But a return to the gold standard?......quite plausible. And the effect of that on the West's population would be that their fait paper savings wont be worth the paper its printed on.

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Chad Graham
Member
July 22, 2013 2:42 am
Reply to  Alan Harris

agreed. China as we all know has a pollution problem. considering the unregulated industries and for the growth to be in the 10% pa ..its a bit like the wild wild west. reform is the talk of today and some cities has already become “green” and industry is been forced to become green. in fact the green movement in China is the fastest in the world considering the economy of scales. one area we disagree on is that our analysis points to the Asian market growing when the west will be shrinking. so the Shanghai composite we think is the time to buy, Korea and Japan will also grow while the rest is shrinking. lol..remember you heard it here!

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