Eric in IL

Gold as a Savings Instrument - Not an Investment

I appreciate your perspective here. I agree more with your savings argument. I do not "invest" in gold near-term, but for a long-term hedge it is very prudent.
One thing that drives me insane is the following premise "Gold is money. Real money, tangible money unlike the fiat paper currencies ..." I get that it is tangible and in limited supply.
Why does gold have any more value than currency? They are all really assets with "perceived" value. Gold has much less industrial use than other precious metals. It has value because someone in ancient times said it had value, and that has remained throughout time (our view of time).
I would much rather be long Platinum here. I am actually bearish on Platinum near-term, but it should outperform Gold for almost any slice of time from here.

Quarterly Summary on Gold and Other Markets

Nice analysis. I would have liked you to have discussed the realtionship between Gold and Platinum Group Metals. That relationship tells me that PGM should outperform Gold throughout 2009-2010.
I happen to disagree with your view on Gold. I think if equities rally, like today, then Gold gets hurt. The price of gold right now is more of a safety concern, for lack of good alternatives, than it is an inflation concern. Near term, equities should outperform. When this market takes a breather, I would look at PGM.
Dollar fell today and so did Gold, and Oil is up. I don't really think any market is working like it should, but the Gold-Inflation trade is farther out than people realize.
Long GLL and GLL Calls, Long DIG Calls.