I have a moderate holding in gold (15%) invested in a self-select ISA (using the GBS ETF).

Gold is becoming a speculators' market, and many of the major purchasers are ETFs (as well as services such as Bullionvault), buying tonnes of the stuff on behalf of shareholders. This is bullish for gold in the short term, but once confidence evaporates, the price could fall very quickly as ETFs are forced to unload their gold holdings when shareholders sell.

I'm staying in gold for the next few months, riding the wave as China and India buy into the market. But I'm planning to set up some stop-losses...

I believe the gold market is going to be very volatile over the next few years, but will go a lot higher. The trouble with getting out is you could miss the main increases.

The time to get out is when everyone is getting in which I believe we are far from. Try the silver ETF as well been doing quite well from them as well. Silver has a historic average of 16 to 1 over gold, currently is 55 to 1.

Hi and thanks for your thoughts. Do you not think that gold has had its big increase? I know that gold is at the same high of $850 as in 1980 but that is not inflation adjusted. What price do you believe gold will go to at its peak and when? What if Iran is attacked will that push the price up like it did in 1980 in the Iran Iraq war? Thanks.

I went to a silver mining forum. A well known chartist predicts gold to hit $3000 by 2012 and silver to hit $185.

Agreed - we haven't reached the mania stage yet. Silver underperformed gold during 2007 - I will top up below $14. Also good value amongst some of the Canadian silver mining juniors - I shall be investing in the next few weeks.

Edited to add:

The following are on the shopping list - all mentioned by Frizzers (see his Moneyweek article) / David Morgan / Finanacial Sense Gold Show:

Endeavour (EDR)
Great Panther
First Majestic
Impact
Esperanza

All on the TSX - not for widows and orphans