Do you guys like the smell of this as a way to invest in Gold ?
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/fund_pe...edol/0173258.hl
Full Version: Meryll Lynch Gold & General Fund
I have used my ISA allowance and invested in this and it's done well.
Not ideal if you are thinking like cgnao that total meltdown is coming because it could be worthless if Meryll Lynch goes belly up.
But if you think as he does only physical gold will do.
It should give 3-4 times leverage on the gold price according to some of the people on GEI.
Not ideal if you are thinking like cgnao that total meltdown is coming because it could be worthless if Meryll Lynch goes belly up.
But if you think as he does only physical gold will do.
It should give 3-4 times leverage on the gold price according to some of the people on GEI.
Agree with the comments from Compounded.
I've been invested in this fund for 3 years now and have been pretty happy with it. Got a mixture of ISA and fund holdings, with the original investment up a very solid 170% return. Highly recommended for testing the water with precious metals investing.
Main drawback seems to be the high buy/sell spread (5%) on top of any broker fees you may have. It is a pretty illiquid form of gold investing, which is fine if you want a long-term 'fire and forget' type investment. However, as we all know, Gold is very volatile so you will have to be able to stomach the fund going dramatically down at time. As I've grown more knowledgeable on PM investing, I've found myself wanting to trade between the peaks and troughs. However, the high buy-in fees have made me wary of doing so (and hence didn't!). For this reason, I haven't bought any MLG&G for over 18 months, favouring to buy individual stocks that I've researched. But the confidence to do this has taken time, so the MLG&G is a good way to buy into a diverse range of stock holdings.
I've found the leverage to be about 1.5:1 to 2:1, depending on currency changes. As with physical gold, timing your buy well helps. I bought a mini-ISA in April 2006 and it has only moved into profit in the last couple of months. Your money can go up and down blah blah blah....
You can buy it either as an Income fund or Accumulation (dividends reinvested). I've got Acc holdings.
I've been invested in this fund for 3 years now and have been pretty happy with it. Got a mixture of ISA and fund holdings, with the original investment up a very solid 170% return. Highly recommended for testing the water with precious metals investing.
Main drawback seems to be the high buy/sell spread (5%) on top of any broker fees you may have. It is a pretty illiquid form of gold investing, which is fine if you want a long-term 'fire and forget' type investment. However, as we all know, Gold is very volatile so you will have to be able to stomach the fund going dramatically down at time. As I've grown more knowledgeable on PM investing, I've found myself wanting to trade between the peaks and troughs. However, the high buy-in fees have made me wary of doing so (and hence didn't!). For this reason, I haven't bought any MLG&G for over 18 months, favouring to buy individual stocks that I've researched. But the confidence to do this has taken time, so the MLG&G is a good way to buy into a diverse range of stock holdings.
I've found the leverage to be about 1.5:1 to 2:1, depending on currency changes. As with physical gold, timing your buy well helps. I bought a mini-ISA in April 2006 and it has only moved into profit in the last couple of months. Your money can go up and down blah blah blah....
You can buy it either as an Income fund or Accumulation (dividends reinvested). I've got Acc holdings.
QUOTE (Gormless Brown @ Jan 5 2008, 11:00 AM) 
Agree with the comments from Compounded.
I've been invested in this fund for 3 years now and have been pretty happy with it. Got a mixture of ISA and fund holdings, with the original investment up a very solid 170% return. Highly recommended for testing the water with precious metals investing.
Main drawback seems to be the high buy/sell spread (5%) on top of any broker fees you may have. It is a pretty illiquid form of gold investing, which is fine if you want a long-term 'fire and forget' type investment. However, as we all know, Gold is very volatile so you will have to be able to stomach the fund going dramatically down at time. As I've grown more knowledgeable on PM investing, I've found myself wanting to trade between the peaks and troughs. However, the high buy-in fees have made me wary of doing so (and hence didn't!). For this reason, I haven't bought any MLG&G for over 18 months, favouring to buy individual stocks that I've researched. But the confidence to do this has taken time, so the MLG&G is a good way to buy into a diverse range of stock holdings.
I've found the leverage to be about 1.5:1 to 2:1, depending on currency changes. As with physical gold, timing your buy well helps. I bought a mini-ISA in April 2006 and it has only moved into profit in the last couple of months. Your money can go up and down blah blah blah....
You can buy it either as an Income fund or Accumulation (dividends reinvested). I've got Acc holdings.
I've been invested in this fund for 3 years now and have been pretty happy with it. Got a mixture of ISA and fund holdings, with the original investment up a very solid 170% return. Highly recommended for testing the water with precious metals investing.
Main drawback seems to be the high buy/sell spread (5%) on top of any broker fees you may have. It is a pretty illiquid form of gold investing, which is fine if you want a long-term 'fire and forget' type investment. However, as we all know, Gold is very volatile so you will have to be able to stomach the fund going dramatically down at time. As I've grown more knowledgeable on PM investing, I've found myself wanting to trade between the peaks and troughs. However, the high buy-in fees have made me wary of doing so (and hence didn't!). For this reason, I haven't bought any MLG&G for over 18 months, favouring to buy individual stocks that I've researched. But the confidence to do this has taken time, so the MLG&G is a good way to buy into a diverse range of stock holdings.
I've found the leverage to be about 1.5:1 to 2:1, depending on currency changes. As with physical gold, timing your buy well helps. I bought a mini-ISA in April 2006 and it has only moved into profit in the last couple of months. Your money can go up and down blah blah blah....
You can buy it either as an Income fund or Accumulation (dividends reinvested). I've got Acc holdings.
You can get the bid/offer spread discounted from fund supermarkets like Hargreaves and Lansdown. Anyway another question:
What sort of percentage might you invest in Meryll Lynch G & G or physical gold, and what percentage in normal non-gold equities if you were investing for 10 years ?
QUOTE (penbat1 @ Jan 5 2008, 11:18 AM)
You can get the bid/offer spread discounted from fund supermarkets like Hargreaves and Lansdown. Anyway another question:
Just watch for it, as charges/spreads can be hidden away in all sorts of places. There's no free lunch...
QUOTE
What sort of percentage might you invest in Meryll Lynch G & G or physical gold, and what percentage in normal non-gold equities if you were investing for 10 years ?
Nobody can answer this for you. Traditional balanced portfolios for normal times suggest 5% (and hope it fails). But it is questionable whether we are in normal times. Hence why many on here would advocate 'non-traditional balanced' investment methods. Also, if you don't make any effort to review your portfolio periodically over 10 years then you are at the mercy of the market. Things change. Gold may be good for the next 1/2/3/5/10 years, but the longer you look ahead, the less certain you can be. Personally, I think gold has at least 3-5 good years ahead of it. 10 years?? I'm not sure. History shows these things go in cycles...
QUOTE (penbat1 @ Jan 4 2008, 10:43 PM)
Do you guys like the smell of this as a way to invest in Gold ?
Yes - but recently sold some at £11 and invested in Royal Gold. This is a royalty company trading in the US - currently looks undervalued at around $31. Still heavily invested in G&G.
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