Which bank or banking institution in Switzerland offers the possibility for individuals to open precious metal account? Thanks in advance. Ashish

Simpler to buy a metal certificate instead of buying metal. The certificates are very liquid. Some certificates are exchange traded, i.e. very easy to buy and sell. You can also leverage your bet through options. Many issuers of certificates on several underlying metals, e.g. gold, silver, platinum, copper, zinc, etc.

Ashish

hard to tell without knowing what it is you want to do.. do you want to invest in physical gold ingots? or do you simply want exposure to gold? you can buy gold certificates, or indeed ETFs, which might be the simplest.

if you have access to an online brokerage account, look into ticker IAU. you have all the benefits of investing in gold without having to look after the metal

From what I read, buying a slice of my share of metal and just paying a small storage fee (GoldMoney.com charges 38$ per year) is more secure, in the event of bank going bust.

Any recommendations as to which bank to choose from for buying metal certificates. Do one need to have a account in these bank and is there any fee levied by the bank for trading certificates.

Thanks in advance. Ashish

I was just looking around for how to invest in gold in an easy and inexpensive manner. I'm not certainly interested in physically buying them and storing with me. Metal certificates looks an attractive option and any recommendations of which bank to choose from are most welcome. Thanks in advance. Ashish

For gold/ silver certificates try the perth mint. www.perthmint.com.au . They are very well known. My understading is that there is an office in Dublin as well as here in zurich where you can purchase these. They are West Australian government backed, so very safe and liquid. Minimum investment i think is US$10K.

They also have 'accounts', where instead of keeping balances in $ you can keep them in ounces of silver or gold etc. But if your not an australian citizen you need a fair amount of dosh to open one (250K or 50K if you are aussie).

Myself, I prefer to invest directly in gold company juniors.

[quote=Ashish;182068
Any recommendations as to which bank to choose from for buying metal certificates. Do one need to have a account in these bank and is there any fee levied by the bank for trading certificates.

Thanks in advance. Ashish[/quote]

Any bank can help you. ABN Amro is a well known issuer of commodity certificates. The Bank will charge you a custodial fee and a trading fee. The issuer would have a bid/ask "spread", i.e. the difference between buying and selling price, which is about 1%.

If you are comfortable using a computer, than go for an online platform. Swissquote Bank
http://www.swissquote.ch/index_e.html
have an English interface.

Gold has had such a steep increase during the last 6 months. Difficult to imagine further rapid gains.

Why? Many might disagree with that. Not all are after only a capital gain but also capital preservation, the OP might be after that. But sure, in the short term might drop 100bucks+ but long term its well worth investigating.

Where is the capital preservation when gold is anticipated dropping $100 ?
Better pick up something like UBS, which has dropped massively

I didnt say it was going to move in a straight line.

UBS? lol .

You think?

I have hold ETF of Silver in ZKB, they have 4 precious metal Exch. trade fund:

http://www.zkb.ch/de/startseite/priv...ebersicht.html

It gives right of even get physical precious metal.

You can buy and sell it via, for instance, Swissquote.
Have fun.

Gold is supposed to be good to invest in during bad times. At the moment though this doesn't seem to be the case, Gold and Silver prices have declined during the recent crises, as have all commodities - Oil, Precious metals, etc.

I would hardly say gold has done badly when u compare to the other asset classes. Silver on the otherhand has fared worse. It also depends on what currency you are looking at it from. Only from the US dollar has it done 'not so badly'- as the US has risen - however that will be short lived. From the australian dollar however it is almost at record highs.

Soon people will also realise the supply and demand issue also coming into play.

For normal diversification there is nothing wrong with gold. Nothing has been spared during this crisis (heaps of deleveraging going on) but i would say that gold has held on pretty well so far, currently trading at 780. Im actually surprised it has held on so well considering the losses in other asset classes, i would have thought they would have sold gold as well to free up cash. Not the case at this stage (so far!!). I think 2009 will actually be a good year for gold, as for the global economy, dont think so.

Short term, who the f knows.

Yes, Gold has done reasonably well - gone down, but not that much.

Question though is that if gold is supposed to be a such good investment, then why is there a flight to cash (ie to currencies like dollar/yen, who's economies are in pretty bad shape)?

You would have expected gold to double or tripple in value relative to paper currencies of almost bankrupt economies - after all gold investing has risks and costs (insurance, storage costs), and no earnings apart from capital appreciation when times are very bad.

So what is a good investment?

People always advise Treasury bonds, but these depend on the risk of the country/currency involved.

The dollar is expected to fall again after the current deleveraging and dollar carry trades come to an end next year or so. The Euro is also expected to fall - some people are saying that it might even break up.

The Swiss franc is in trouble too with huge eastern europe bank loans that the Swiss banks have made - amounting to some 50% of GDP. On top of that, the Swiss and European banks have a reasonable chunk of of the global derivatives toxic debts, that total some $600 Trillion, meaning that if the loans turn sour (which they likely will), then this risks the entire Swiss economy, like Iceland at the very extreme end.

The Chinese are in serious trouble too where currency depreciations are likely, the same for others like India, Russia and oil rich gulf states....

Maybe gold is the best of a bad job as it were?

You paint quite an apocalyptic picture JamesK. Are you sure it wouldn't be wiser to invest in freshwater aquifers? (after all you can't eat gold)

in that case, im sure at least razor blades will be in high demand.

I'm living in Dublin at the moment, and they have a lot of talk about the recession in the media over here - seems to be having a big, visible effect - nothing like the number of people as there used to be the temple bar areas, and quite a few "for sale" signs in the centre.

Anyway I heard an ad on the radio that put things in perspective I thought. I forget exactly, but it went something like:
"So that billion euro equity investment collapsed completely? So that trillion euro Goverment bailout package didn't include YOU? So ...., So .....

Never mind!

Theres a always a pint available for you at...."

I think that $ 600 tn figure comes from the 4Q 2008 BIS Quarterly Report. It refers to turnover, not an actual amount.

See here for a link to the report.

Financial Crisis Bank News [was: How Safe is UBS?]