Fear mismatch? 10 month low for Sterling gold ETF not 4 month

I suppose this should be seen as a good thing -another proper buying opportunity for gold. But the reason it's a buying opportunity is because it's scary and I'm not immune to that fear.

However there is a mismatch, the media chat about impending huge falls in the gold price is nothing like it was back in December 2011 - at least not yet - but I think it's because in dollar terms the lows still aren't below the December 28 $1,523 low.

Spreads, sterling gold vs dollar gold

As the eurozone summit progressed today the performance of ETF Securities' sterling denominated (PHGP) and dollar denominated physical gold ETFs (PHAU) diverged, as did their spreads (although I'm still waiting to get a proper breakdown of these from ETF Securities.)

When I looked around 2pm today PHAU shares had a 0.04% spread (the difference between the price at which I can sell shares and the price at which I can buy them)

While PHGP had a 0.2% spread. Although they're both small figures, that is a five-fold difference.

Today PHAU was among the top ten shares bought by Hargreaves Lansdown clients making up 1.3% of the value of all shares bought.

Whatever the political outcome of the eurozone crisis and the summit, it was never likely to suit everyone involved. All parties want a solution of some kind but will employ brinkmanship to make their voices heard. It is ongoing.

Something happened but what it was is still unclear.From the point of view of an under resourced gold ETF investor all I could see was this divergence of paths between sterling gold and dollar gold earlier today.

Dollar denominated gold gained while sterling denominated gold fell. That means that my dollar denominated physical gold ETF (PHAU) gained nearly 1% but if I had sold it, the dollars I would have got from the sale would have been automatically converted into pounds sterling.

And pounds sterling, as well as the euro, gained against the dollar as the build up to the summit results went on before settling back in the aftermath - as did the gap between PHGP and PHAU.

That's the way the ETF works. So my actual return would have been more akin to the sterling denominated ETF PHGP. In effect, the dollars I made from gold would have been swallowed up by the dollar falling in value against the pound.

Gold ETF Investor, riots and rises on November 30 2011

The office next door to where I'm working temporarily was occupied by UK Uncut today - at least the picture I took on my phone suggests something was going on.

So on the day of mass strikes in the UK central banks on both sides of the Atlantic took coordinated action to push down the value of the dollar. I haven't looked into the mechanism but FT Alphaville suggests this piece for further reading on the subject. However rises in markets was as much if not more to do with traders being forced to close down their bets against the euro.

The effect, a fall for the dollar and relative rise in the value of the pound.

When the dollar falls in value the price of gold rises because it becomes more attractive to investors using different currencies. But it also means that the gold they own - dollar, denominated assets, are worth less in terms of their own currencies.

PHGP Vs PHAU

Google Finance chart of PHGP vs PHAU shows the US denominated gold rising faster than sterling denominated gold. This means, relatively speaking, it is cheaper for me to buy sterling gold and I will get fewer pounds back when I sell my gold - in other words the pound has strengthened against the dollar. Google Chart

My gold investments are still down overall since the original investment on September 22.

On Thursday and Friday of last week I bought £500 worth of BlackRock Gold and General fund which will have helped a bit but I am wondering about the price drop predictions outlined in the last couple of blogs. I need to read this from the Investors Chronicle, it mentions the fund in the context of a small investor's portfolio.

I'm buying the fund not the ETF today but will gold plunge anyway?

MoneyWeek's John C Burford said in an email today : "my target is for gold to fall to much lower levels".

His last gold forecast proved pretty accurate but I didn't act on it because I didn't understand his methods.

I still don't. However I am at a buying moment - it's two months since my first investment on 22 September - and I've decided on a vague month-by-month investment strategy.

So I am looking to add more to my gold bet, either via investing in ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) or BlackRock Gold and General and I had a look at this choice yesterday.

Back to Burford... just because he was right last time I thought I'd hang on and see if he's right again. I can't tell from the piece what sort of time scale he's putting on this - his 'tramlines' suggest the fall will be today (Thursday).

I've just put in a £250 order for more BlackRock Gold and General (it's been accepted although I didn't think I could invest such small amounts. If it goes through I might do the same over the next three days. But I want to check with my broker Hargreaves Lansdown what they mean by this: "We actively monitor levels of trading and may refuse applications from anyone who is considered to have a history of short-term or excessive trading or whose trading has been, or may be, disruptive" in their terms and conditions).

I also need to properly understand how the spreads on this unit trust work. Yesterday the buying price was nearly 6% higher than the selling price although most of this should be wiped-off because I'm dealing through Hargreaves Lansdown.

As far as I can tell, I am able to cancel my order by phone any time before the investment manager starts processing the order - and no one knows when that is.

In his piece Burford says that if gold falls with markets "This demonstrates the fact that gold may not be, contrary to common wisdom, a hedge against financial turmoil. If and when the Dow makes a huge leap down, gold is likely to follow."

That does seem to be the way things work at the moment due to investors selling gold and buying dollars. But gold falls less and recovers faster and that's enough for me - and it seems like a good idea to buy at those low points.

I also noticed that my pounds have weakened against the dollar - hence the sterling gold ETF PHGP, has not fallen as far as PHAU. To me this looks counter-intuitive but I think it makes sense: if I convert my dollar denominated ETF into pounds I get more pounds per dollar (because the pound has weakened) so, in sterling terms my gold price hasn't fallen so far. This means that a sterling based investor is at a disadvantage during a good buying opportunity.

I want the pound to be weak when I sell, not when I buy. But this stuff still doesn't come naturally to me!

As far as I can tell this currency problem is by-passed, or passed on to fund manager, by investing in the BlackRock Gold and General. Hopefully a fund manager knows how to deal with that catch 22.

At the same time I can also invest smaller amounts at no cost. So I'm going to give it a go.

Check LSE not broker for $ price of PHAU gold ETF shares

In the last post Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) told me what I'd paid in dollars for my ETF Securities Physical Gold shares (PHAU) because it wasn't on my contract note. I then asked them whether I needed to get in touch with them every time I traded to find out what I'd paid in dollars.

One of their traders emailed me saying that for now the details of how much I'd paid in dollars would not be available via my HL account but they were looking into adding them.

In the meantime I was told that I could find the particulars of my trade, priced in dollars, on the London Stock Exchange website.

So I took a look and yes, the details of all trades for one day are available for every share that is dealt on the exchange. An investor will need to be able to identify their own trade. I'm hoping I can do so just by knowing the number of shares I bought and the time I did the trade (and hope that no one else had done anything too similar recently).

How do you find these dollar prices? You can simply type PHAU into the search at the top of the LSE site and its page will come up - half way down you'll find a box showing the five most recent trades.

If you want to see all the trades for that day then adjust the controls above the displayed trades.

It should look like this: