The extremely rocky waters of the market have been unsettling lately. I still believe that Google will hit the $450 per share range, but it does not seem to be slipping below $500 per share. We shall see.
Meanwhile, I sold all of my gold (GLD) holdings yesterday, when the exchange fund hit an all time high in the $93 range. I had doubled down on my gold holdings early in the year and promised myself not to get greedy. All in all, the antiquated form of polished currency did well by me.
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:GLD
So, now, am 100% out of all financial markets. The high level of volatility is unsettling, and I just don’t have enough time to (a) research possible gain from short-term volatility or (b) be making the long-term value investments right now.
I will say that gold never made much sense to me. The concept of a gold-backed standard is basically dead, and I don’t see a big long-term future in precious metals. As long as mining outputs the flashy metal at a lower pace then demand for the yellowy stuff grows among a growing population, the price will continue to rise. The recent bursts in gold value is not due to increased demand by jewelry consumers worldwide, but due to investment dollars having no other good places to go, and that is not a long-term reason to own anything.
There are two areas that I think do make sense to invest in… I will ave this for later.
Now that you have liquidated those funds. In what currency will you hold them? Will you hold them in the seemingly unstable dollar already experiencing more than average inflation from low short-term fed rates? Maybe move to euros? Perhaps an Asian currency, as I hear they’re on the rise.
Might glance at Marc Faber’s occasional interviews and his remarks at this year’s Barron’s Round Table. His own website is a bit pricey.
Marc’s accurate more often in down markets than up.
He’s annoyingly right much of the time, always flamboyant in his opinions.
Marc sees gold in a choppy range for the short term. So far in March, it’s only headed north like a skyrocket.
“Seeking Alpha” is another good scrum of ETF enthusiasts. Lots of discussions there about Yuan and Rupee holdings, which schemes are wanks and which ones work.