I'd like to invest in GOLD... advice please

[Wolfgirl]

I'd like to invest in GOLD, not BIG money, but a few thousand. I believe over the next couple of years is it going to rocket and provide a decent yield.

But whilst I know a few companies to trade shares with, I don't know about gold. Can someone advise a company please? cheers.

"The week will also see earnings reports from Britain’s biggest banks. HSBC and Barclays are due to issue their quarterly results on Monday, followed by Standard Chartered on Tuesday, Lloyds Banking Group on Wednesday and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on Friday. The government owns 43% of Lloyds and 70.3% of RBS. afp"

I hold a tiny weeny amount of Lloyds, only because I wanted to test the water with them. they too have results coming out this week.

But its Barclays I would like to invest in, but my pesky broker told me to hold off buying. bah humbug!!!!!

Wolfgirl - I don't think you can believe everything you read no matter how reliable the source publication/website. I read the FT yesterday and there is a lot of diverging opinion as to what house prices will do in that one publication. I'm a housing bull for London and the Home Counties. I think we are pretty much at the bottom.

Re Barclays _ I could have sold Barclays at 310p on Fri but on balance feel their results will send them higher after they post their results tomorrow. I'd like to see 314p, or more.

totally agree Swedes, totally agree. at the end of the day know one knows how the markets will react to any grain of news - following the argument that fundamentals move markets (howeve, lets not forget TEch. analysis - it has its place)

Yes, my gut feelign is that Barclays will rise; some brokers have targeted £4.20 - that would be nice. But Id like to see them dip below £3 again for me to get on board. would like them cheap cheap cheap Id like to see my weeny stake in Lloyds rise too, of course. some say if Barclays come good, then Lloyds (and RBS etc) will ride on the back of it.

Swedes- at letting a few men in to do the charts.

On residential property I don't think that it will fall much further but I don't see a quick bounce back either. Commericial property is a better medium term buy IMO as it has fallen nearly 50pc but you have to be very careful tenancy risk.

I am a medium/long term buyer of FTSE but I am a short term seller from where we are. I think things may not look so "green shooty" in the autumn.

WolfG- you are a real pro! I stick to main indices, currency, gold, oil futures. Basic stuff that I can relate to the broad economy altho' the insiders know the supply demand pressures that Swedes alluded to. This way, I have low cost access and high liquidity. IAnd I don't rely too much on trusting corporate governance on one company - rotters.

I actually think oil is a better hedge investment than gold at the moment.

I've asked Justine for an investment topic.

I currently like the look of XP Power XPP.L.

I don't disagree. I was hoping to buy nearer to $60 but it is now at $70. We could see a little dip between now and autumn and I hope to buy then.

TDiddy.... and you say Im a Pro. Oh no no no no no!!! never never never. just a dabbler and no where near your league. Looking forward to the Investment topic;

Lets start up a STOCKS to WATCH. ?

I can see the movie or Times article where you beat the professional fund managers. It did happen 10 years or so agao when a pharmacist beat the pros in a fantasy competition...so they hired him as a pro.

Thanks for the tip. Will have a look. I haven't a clue on individual stocks. One of my little projects is to look into the spreadbetters doing the Halifax house price index now that the banks have a (small) market in hpi futures.

We should see how Tamiflu manufacturer is doing and whether the winter surge is already in the price?

I have a PEP in Framlington Health fund, and its been performing pretty rubbish over the last few years. I need to check it out since Tamiflu has come on the market.

Two other small stocks to watch - perhaps:

MONI
POWR

PS, my dh entered a competition about 4 years back, with Standard Life. He had to predict the FTSE on a certain date, and whey heyyyyyyy, he won £2500 in Kuoni travel vouchers. we went to the states on a fly drive and to stay with friends in Boston and Phoenix. was luvvvvverrrllly!!!

TDiddy - do you trade indices?

On my own account? I am mainly trading FX at present. Professionally I have done indices but not doing that at present.

You and DH could start a Mtracker fund of some sort. Start by publishing fantasy tips, track the performance. Show that it would be making money. And then you will be attract investors.

basically a hedge fund but we don't like to call them that these days But you could brand give it a parental slant and some humour. Can I have the CFO job?

In the last 3 four months I have been taking positions, sorry "investing in":
EUR vs GBP
EUR vs USD
USD vs GBP

Here is the thing, if you measure my performance based on the size of my underlying exposure then I am currently up 3.5 percent over those three months. But if you measure the return based on the deposit that I paid Etrade then I am up 30pc.

A bit like buying a house. You can double your deposit quickly as you are exposed to a movements in a large asset.

So in your case you can control 2k of exposure with only 1k deposit.

As with buying a house though, your deposit can get wiped out if the market goes the other way.

sorry all, family arrived back now incl. inlaws, so have to go and host. lovely chatting and will pop by on and on. Look forward to the Investment forum being set up.

Hello - sure we can try and investment topic (with a big disclaimer that shares can go up as well as down ). We'll get on to it soonest.

Justine - Great, thanks. Agree about the disclaimer.

Thanks Justine.

Agree that we need a very strong (Upper case) disclaimer.

Swedes- i closed out my short position in GBP at a very small loss after the market calmed back down after early surge. I think the Halifax House Price data due this week could lead to another surge. Also the RICS data and Land Registry data due the following week so I don't want to be run over by the bulls.

Wolfg- you will get economic calender from Etrade but the guys with the Bloomberg (and Reuters terminals) react fastest as they see consensus forecats vs actual number as soon as announced. I think you know this stuff anyway.

EVening ladies, quick hello to see how your day went?

If you want live equity prices, try www.shareprice.co.uk

TD.... gone are the days of watching live prices on such dealer screens! unless you mean trading with a company who use Reuters \ Bloomberg? Its late and the house is full of kids not gone to bed yet . at least tea is over and the kitchen is cleared with D\W contributing it little heart out!

Barclays dun good, eh! I wonder if it will even out in the coming days, I doubt it after such good results. If it does however, I will jump in. Im hold a weeny holding of Lloyds, and am hoping it will come good on Wednesday when it releases its results. Bank of Ireland rose nicely today too, which I also hold.

right, will jump on tomorrow to say hi. Im holding off any decisions to buy into gold right now, life is too busy with family etc, and mum just being admitted into hospital, plus I still have a touch of flu, so have decided head can only operate in 1st gear. Well, thats my excuse, but I rarely get out of 1st since babies came along.

nighty night

Good night wolf. So you dion't think I am a troll, TDiddy is a man

Yes, the bulls are on the ascendancy. I wouldn't buy or sell them. You could do well holding them.

I think Swedes might be right about Oil being a better play than gold. I think the downside is more limited.

thanks for the info source. I have lots of live data at work but less at home.

I used the Moneyam.com stockwatch facility for live prices. It's completely free.

used use