Odd price moves on physical gold ETFs: SGLD, PHAU and PHGP

The gold price dipped below £1000 per ounce again this morning with both ETF Securities dollar and sterling etfs dropping as the dollar index spiked (above) and stock markets bounced starting in the US, may be inspired by US gains on  G8 and talk of Eurobonds.

But this is an excuse to post some odd physical gold ETF price moves from the recent past... however it starts with another mention of the common phenomenon of Fresnillo's price jumping as it did  at the end of trading yesterday (pic below) but peculiar price leaps in gold ETFs (listed below) seem to have calmed a bit - for now at least.

Source buy backs - not trading!

I have been talking about large volumes of shares being traded on Source's physical gold ETF on May 9 2012 but it looks like it was a "buy back". I don't know what that entailed. I'll see if I can find out.

iShares physical gold ETF spreads shot above 3%

Weekly ETF trading data from the London Stock Exchange show that physical gold ETFs make up the majority trading in exchange traded products and that spreads -  the difference between the buying and selling price of shares - for one of these physical gold ETFs rose above 3% at the beginning of the year.

Gold on Sunday night 11 March 2012

BullionVault's market report from Friday is the only outline I've read of what went on at the end of last week.

Source physical gold ETF SGLD vs PHAU - cheaper, growing fast

Today I tried a bit of research on the size of gold ETFs traded on the London Stock Exchange and on the spreads investors are likely to see (with a helping hand from Index Universe).

The process reveald a few more physical gold ETFs than I expected but most of them were pretty small compared to PHAU, GBS and Source (SGLD), although I couldn't always find their assets under management.