Dear all

I don't often comment on this site but I have been an avid reader for over a year - there is always a fascinating debate which helps me consider my own position and do more research.

So anyway, to the question. I have multiple investment classes but (about 50% in euro cash and property, 20% in Danish Kroner cash, 30% in sterling cash and shares). I am considering shifting away from sterling and have already moved some into gold.

What are people's opinions to Platinum? As far as I can see it is not only a rare substance (treated similar to gold) but also has a lot of commodity value as a raw material. I also have a few friends at Johnson Matthey who say that surface mining is all but exhausted for Platinum meaning the only way to get the stuff in the future is deep mining (therefore more expensive).

Is platinum an interesting addition to gold in a sensible spread of investments? Also. where can i buy it? I like bullion vault - is there anything similar for platinum?


Thanks


Lextser

I decided to move around 25% of all my cash into gold 11 Jan 2007 (cash was tied up in my house until I managed to sell it). Was going to go 100% into gold, but decided to split 50/50 gold/platinum. Very glad I did, as while gold price has hardly moved at all, platinum has increased by 25%, netting me a very nice profit.

Many people on this forum advocate holding physical metal, ie through bullionvault.com. However I'm happy to hold ETC (certifcates), as these have the ease of being quick and easy to sell like shares, and can be held in an ISA or sharedealing account, available from any of the many providers (eg www.selftrade.com). I've bought them with sterling, although they are priced in USD.

There are two variants of the gold ETC, but only one of the platinum from what I can see, and this is backed by a physical holding of platinum. My only choices now are whether to sell my gold ETC and buy more platinum, and how to decide what time to sell up. If economic conditions deteriorated suddenly and dramatically, then I iwould consider selling my ETCs and buying physical gold.