streetTRACKS Gold Fund to Cross-List in Asia

By Heather Bell

The global gold frenzy looks to be continuing, with the price topping $1,000/ounce for the first time on Wednesday. With exchange-traded funds also attracting a lot of investor interest, it's not surprising that gold-based ETFs are proliferating. The biggest of them all is the streetTRACKS Gold Fund (GLD) at $20.5 billion. Currently, in addition to the NYSE Arca, it also listed on the Mexican and Singapore stock exchanges.

Now it appears investors in Japan and Hong Kong will soon be able to buy into GLD as well. The World Gold Council, which sponsors the vast majority of the gold-backed securities currently trading around the world, has said that it expects to cross-list the fund on exchanges in both markets by the end of the third quarter, according to a recent Reuters article. GLD currently holds about 652 tonnes of gold in storage and represents roughly 80% of the total gold that is held in gold-backed securities sponsored by the WGC.

The WGC is an association of gold mining companies, so it has a definite interest in promoting the trading of gold-linked products. Some market watchers have even argued that products like GLD are helping to drive the price of gold ever higher, but the validity of that assertion has yet to be determined.

Dubai is apparently another market that the WGC is considering for a gold-backed ETF, according to the Reuters article.

The World's Top Gold-Backed ETFs

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Comments

[AmesTiedeman]

Gold goes to $2,000, GLD goes to $200. Seems simple.

Some suggest $3,500 an ounce for GOLD. This seems quite pessimistic on the outlook for the global economic system.

[E.D. Hart]

Inflation has been vastly understated for decades. This is a fact that is easy to verify and is calculated monthly at Shadowstats. Therefore the inflation adjusted price of gold, were it to return to former highs is closer to $4200 that the $2100 quoted in the media. Gold at $1000 is extremely cheap. This is not pessimistic, but rather, what I like to call, realistic. In this decade gold will exceed $4000 and silver will exceed $200 and oz. These are conservative predictions, and where I placed a huge bet.

[sdavid0419]

The dollar is falling like a lead baloon. T-bills refuse to pay a decent rate of return as do the banks. Thanks to the sub prime lenders there is no longer a trusted rating system. Helicopter Ben is throwing gasoline on the fire by printing worthless money. All of the idiots with charts with lines on them and triangles and price supports are too stupid to realize that this situation has never happened before so there are no charts to propperly reflect it. Gold has always been and will continue to be safe haven money for when everything else is tumbling.

[Mongoose]

I agree with all of the above ,but as long as Traders trade the market will have corrections . I would be very worried if prices went up with out them. I do not see the faintest sign of a bubble .