Portfolio: not much changed

Not much has changed  since a couple of weeks ago - September 18 2012 (Have I made money yet?) - and although my account is up a little, I still haven't properly worked out if I'm up on when I first invested as selling out and buying back in again added some costs!

Gold ETF gains in Australia but gold miners tumble

I sold my ETF shares on Friday and kept my BlackRock Gold and General units (although I couldn't have sold them as I have to put in the sell order before 8am).

Early trading in Australia isn't casting a warm light on the decision. Not only is ETF Securities' Australian gold ETF (GOLD) up more than  1%.

Newcrest Mining, the largest holding (8%) of BlackRock Gold and General is down nearly 3%.

(Google chart link)
(Bloomberg dollar index)
(BullionVault spot gold chart)
The week before Christmas could feel like a long one!

Decision time: gold fund vs gold etf

A further £3,000 should be transferring into my Hargreaves Lansdown account from another ISA that has been sitting out of sight for a decade. The question is whether I want to build up my gold or diversify.

However I don't understand other investments to any useful degree and so I'll probably use the cash to motivate more understanding of my existing investments - narrow as they may be.

One area I could look at is increasing the cash in the BlackRock Gold and General Fund which has fallen 6% over the last week or so.

The chart only goes up to 19 November but the fund's second biggest holding, silver Miner Fresnillo, and its biggest holding Newcrest Mining (NCM), both fell again on Monday and today (Tuesday) as this google chart shows. The chart also shows that my physical gold ETF (PHAU) hasn't fallen as much - and even less in sterling.

The two charts suggest the fund is behaving more in line with Fresnillo than gold or even gold miners.

So, if markets regain confidence, there is potentially more to gain from the fund than the gold ETF. Another advantage is that it's a fund and the cost of buying is much lower than the £11.95 flat fee for an ETF share purchase. The problem is that I have to make a decision to buy before 8am and that purchase won't be processed until midday - and by then anything could have happened. (Interesting observation from Harvey Organ today about a large amount of physical silver being shifted around - the significance of which I do not know... more general news suggests gold is up a lot since UK markets closed, so may be the chance has gone...)

Below is what has happened to my account since Sunday:

Tuesday 22 November

Monday 21 November

Sunday 20 November