On September 27th I recommended people stock up on gold... I was laughed at

[TwixVoy]

Once again I am pulling out a post I bookmarked when I was told I didn't know what I was talking about. On this September 27th post (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6638416) I recommended these 4 actions:


1. Pay off debt.

2. Be almost completely out of ANY investments in this country

3. DO have emergency plans in the back of your mind should the unlikely happen and we have a sudden collapse.

4. Own at least SOME physical gold. I would recommend $10,000-$20,000 worth at a minimum. This is easy to do by purchasing 10-20 1oz US gold eagles minted by the US treasury.


So what is the headline today?

Gold sets new record of $1,143 as dollar falls
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091116/ap_on_bi_ge/us_commodities_review_2

Gold has shot up like a rocket since I made my post, which was obvious to anyone due to the fed policy of weakening the dollar. But I was laughed at just two months ago.

I still recommend being the hell out of the US stock markets. (unless you are shorting it) We are looking at another major down turn on the US markets. Do I know when? Nope... but I know it is coming. Why? JOBS JOBS JOBS and DEBT DEBT DEBT.... along with too much consumption and not enough production. We are still in an incredibly bad situation of no real job creation and massive consumer, business, and government debt. It is a recipe for failure. The fact the government is even admitting it will be years before we see real job growth is the writing on the wall.

I'm sure I'll get laughed at for saying the US markets will tank like the Titanic just like I was laughed at two months ago. I'll be bookmarking this as well....

[Drunken Irishman]

1. I sold all my gold to Ed McMahon.

[vadawg]

2. and ill still laugh at you if you think you will be able to use gold to buy stuff in the event of a

sudden collapse, do you really think you will be able to use your stockpiled gold as currency, do you even know who and were would accept it, that 20,000 dollars you want to put in to gold would be better spent on supplies and weapons now in the event of a crash.. plus why do you want to pay of debt if theres gonna be a collapse, get as much as you can and use it to buy shit you might need, or to get where you need to go.

[TwixVoy]

6. if you bother reading what I have said over and over the past several months

I do NOT AT ALL believe we are looking at a dooms day kind of collapse.

I have said for almost a year now I believe we as a country are looking at a slow gradual decline over a period of several years. What do I mean by that? People will get more and more poor slowly over time as a general trend. The dollar will continue to weaken (and thus gold will increase in value relative to the dollar).

I didn't recommend buying gold as a dooms day recommendation. (hell I would be recommending guns and food if I believed we were looking at that) I recommend it as a way to PRESERVE whatever wealth you may have as your dollars lose value progressively over the coming years.

[vadawg]

7. okay fair enough, how much gold do you have then, how prepped are you

i come from a gold culture, always had gold squirreled away but i still want to be as diversified as i can. best investment you ever make is a good rifle, as told to me from my forefathers...

[Art_from_Ark]

11. Yeah, you better load up on ammo

'cause it will be "kill or be killed", right?

What you describe is a worst-case scenario of a total breakdown of society.

Far more likely is inflation that will make the '70s look like a cakewalk. Very few countries have experienced a total breakdown of society, but nearly all have had to struggle with severe inflation. And gold can be a type of insurance against severe inflation, as people around the world have learned.

[vadawg]

13. always a good idea to have a good rifle no matter what, but my question still stands

you have all this gold, now what do you do with it, do you have it in paper only or do you have physical custody of it, its all very well having a gold stockpile but i would be interested how its going to help you in the day to day living...

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Day-to-day living

Sell the amount you need to covert into inflation-adjusted cash to a dealer. This is usually how it has been done in countries that have suffered from severe inflation, like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Serbia, Hungary, France, Germany, and Italy, to name a few. Don't try dealing directly with rubes who wouldn't know a gold eagle from a Philadelphia Eagle.

[vadawg]

17. yup youve thought about this, ill supply your ammo needs :)

[Euromutt]

68. Ammunition makes more sense than gold

Ammunition's actually useful for something, namely taking game. Even the lowly .22LR is good for providing squirrel and rabbit meat. In that regard, ammunition has actual worth.

Gold is intrinsically worthless, because it's practically useless, except in electronics, and that only requires small amounts. Gold has whatever value people agree it has, and in times of crisis, that value can plummet. In Nazi-occupied Europe, gold didn't buy a lot of food, and in post-liberation Europe, Allied cigarettes (made with real, not Ersatz, tobacco) were literally worth more than their weight in gold. The only value gold had on the black market in those circumstances was predicated on the black marketeer's estimation that gold would, at some future date, regain its value.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Smart folks were hoarding gold starting 2-3 years ago....

$1143/oz...amazing.

[hobbit709]

4. I could afford to buy about 5 grams of gold

How far do you think that will get me through the crash?
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Drunken Irishman]

5. Why do I feel like I'm listening to an old Art Bell radio cast?

[janx]

18. Because you ARE.

:rofl:

[janx]

21. BIGFOOT has been spotted in the Southwestern United States--

specifically in the area of Flagstaff. Look for it in the volcanic mountains around that area.

[Drunken Irishman]

23. Art cracked me up.

I listened to his show for the callers. Especially when they were possessed callers.

Possessed Caller from Norway, you're on line one...

[janx]

27. "I was taken up into the Space Ship and raped!"

:rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Oh jeez how many times do I have to tell you

that the Aliens are not fixated with having sex with you.

Now if they can take your brain apart to see what the hell you know... well then that is best.

And the field trip from XCS-78924 is really getting out of hand. All that drinking during Ymmaxxx break! I tell you these kids!

[Tempest]

8. You're way late to the party, bub

I took all but a handful of my stocks and converted it to gold back in 2001 after Bush took office when it was selling at $279 an ounce.

[vadawg]

9. applaud good job

[CoffeeCat]

12. holy buckets...

...and here I thought I was ahead of the game, for getting out of the stock market early last fall before the
crash.

That's amazing.

What do you foresee in our economic future...continued decline as the OP predicts?

We purchased our home five years ago, and I knew then the economy was going to implode. The mortgage broker
tried to cajole us into a huge home with crazy creative financing. She didn't even know how to do a conventional
30-yr mortgage because she always sold the nutty financing--that allowed people to purchase a $400k house for
only $900 a month. My husband and I paid off all debt, starting saving like crazed weasels. I didn't know
anything about derivatives or the secondary housing market. I just knew that the mortgage situation as well
as the credit-card spending was totally unsustainable.

I'm going to go with my intuition and gut--which tells me that our entire economy is contracting from its highs.
No way in hell can we go back to earlier levels of spending. This is good, but it means a total downward
shift in the demand curve.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, since you were prescient, compared to me. And I thought I had a
pretty good handle on things.

[Tempest]

41. I'm staying out of the market for at least two more years

My decision in 2001 was based upon previous Repug presidents and how the market took deep drops during their administrations and how gold shot up. I knew it would be worse under Bush Jr. because he brought in a lot of the same people who created the market drops during Reagan and Bush Sr.'s administrations.

I kept my Microsoft stock and my energy company stocks. The energy stocks haven't done as well as you might imagine, mostly because I don't invest in Exxon or any of their subsidiaries (because of the Alaska Valdez oil spill).

The economic problems are too deep seated and the market will be too volatile for me for a while. By 2011 I'll get back in with green tech stocks (if the overseas market for green technology continues to increase) mixed with a few traditional picks (manufacturing, like GE).

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Ditto, except in 2002

:-)

But I am not in the gloom and boom. Now today I invested 99 cents on an App for the pod that gives me real time economic indicators... now that is USEFUL... and tasty.

[Art_from_Ark]

19. What good are real-time economic indicators?

One day the job market looks "good", the next day it looks "gloomy". Inflation is "tamed" and we are even in a "deflationary" period, but why are insurance, medical care, college tuition, utilities and a bunch of other stuff going up? GM reports a $1.2 billion loss, but says this represents "progress". One day the US dollar is gaining strength, but the next day it falls.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. The major ones are as follows

Gross National Product.

Unemployment Rate

Inflation

Used to M-3 money supply they don't anymore thanks to bush and that was better than inflation... if they cut the money supply the interest rates go up, if they relax it, interest rates go down

Nowhere in here is the stock exchange... the stock exchange is a late commer.

Now Unemployment works like this, every time it starts increasing and I don't mean seasonal changes of up to 1%, but serious changes, you know lean times are coming. It is a leading indicator. Unfortunately it is also a lagging one and it is the last thing to recover why mid 2010 is not that crazy (and in my view still early for significant recovery and that has bad implications for the midterms)

Housing starts

Sale of durable goods.

Import\ export

National debt.

Those are the major ones. Today I bought an App on the APP store simply titled economy. It allows me to follow them including the standard three year, one year, five year and ten year graphs. The one year is almost useless, three year shows you the trends, five year can be somewhat predictive, and ten year is historic.

But stock exchange? It is only going to crash when other things have failed, or we do stupid shit like create massive debt. So the other one is savings rates... low to negative saving rates tend to mean bad times are coming because people don't have a cushion.

Now metals are like the stock exchange, they respond to everything else, and political instability is a good one. I bought gold given that bush led to instability.

[sendero]

67. It's important...

.... to pay attention to the actual numbers, and not the media spin on them.

For example, if you are losing a liter of blood a minute, having it drop to 7/8th of a liter is not necessarily good news.

[KharmaTrain]

66. Good Luck On The Capital Gains...

I converted stocks to gold and foreign currencies during the boooosh years as well...got in at around $300 an ounce but my accountant pointed out that cashing in would mean paying CGs at 35%. Now that's still not a bad deal considering the run up in the price, but still a deterant to cash in unless it's under dire circumstances.

But then some of the gold I have I inherited from my parents...they paid $35 an ounce back in the 70s.

The good thing about the booosh years...when you bet against them you always won.

[CoffeeCat]

10. I never laugh at you...and always look forward to your posts...

Twix, your logic was sold with respect to gold and your other advice. That is a FACT.

Anyone who has not paid off debit is incredibly vulnerable right now. The economy is not solid, and
it could collapse, as you said. Unemployment could skyrocket and each of us is vulnerable to losing
a job or experiencing a pay cut. Debt makes you vulnerable.

And hello...especially anyone with credit-card debt. Those bastards are charging 29.9 percent interest
to their loyal, pay-on-time customers! Carrying a large credit-card balance is asking for trouble, because
of the economic times and because credit-card companies are killing people with fees and exorbitant interest rates.

All you have to do is listen to the economists who have been right all along--Roubini and Denninger. They are
predicting more tough times and possible collapse. Conversely--pay attention to the mainstream, corporate-run
media. They are lying their asses off about the economy. They blatantly twist statistics. Lies happen because
there is a cover up about how bad things are.

And of course things are bad. Unemployment is up, since the collapse. Debt is worse. Seventy percent of our
U.S economy is consumption and people are not spending as they once were. Those days are gone. Credit-card
spending has fallen off the charts. Home-equity loans are practically nonexistent and people have realized
that buying everything in sight--was stupid. When 3/4 of your economic engine has downsized--that spells
trouble.

Plus, the banking problem that was soooo dire--has not been solved. The banks still have toxic assets on their
balance sheet. Foreclosures are predicted to rise.

When this next bubble pops--it will be a collapse. Like you, I have no idea when it will happen. But, to
be unprepared is a horrendous risk.

Keep talking..cuz many agree with you and many are listening!

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Just one point

All you have to do is listen to the economists who have been right all along--Roubini and Denninger. They are
predicting more tough times and possible collapse. Conversely--pay attention to the mainstream, corporate-run
media. They are lying their asses off about the economy. They blatantly twist statistics. Lies happen because
there is a cover up about how bad things are.

-----------------

Roubini has said recently that he no longer expects a collapse....

And just like him, looking at economic indicators we are in a sucky and very deep recession... but we are on the way out... and it will be a LONG slough.

Just a note.

[CoffeeCat]

26. I respectfully disagree...

I don't see how we come out of a recession. I see us slipping farther in--based on
our entire economy contracting.

Consumer spending fuels 70 percent of our economy. Consumers are not behaving
as they once did. Some of that is due to being scared into spending less, or losing
jobs and being unable to spend as much. However, a great deal of it is people coming
to their senses. We now realize that non-essentials on credit cards is unwise and
taking out a home-equity loan for a vacation or leather furniture is counterproductive.

We had a party for the last three decades. The party peaked in the last decade. It's over.

It's over from the consumer side. And also, it's over from the supply side. Credit-card companies
aren't handing out cards to anyone with a pulse and the tidal wave of home-equity loans has dried
up.

There is no replacement for the overspending US consumer. That leaves a void.

Roubini has recently predicted many years of steady decline...at least that's my understanding
from his Facebook posts.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Here is the thing, the economy is no longer contracting

Here is the relevant GNP table from the Department of Commerce

http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/TableView.asp?SelectedTable=1&FirstYear=2008&LastYear=2009&Freq=Qtr

I have become an egghead with these things!!!!!

:hi:

but apparently not my grammar... this\these...

[Go2Peace]

36. Where can you find rabini without paying? Know anywhere?

[defendandprotect]

20. OVERHWELMING DEBT and bankrupting of the Treasury by Bush . . . exhausted creditors--!!!

And those creditors understand there is no way we can pay off -- even with inflated dollars!!

HOWEVER, I try to shun all of the capitalistic game -- doesn't make me wealthy, that's for sure!!

[TexasObserver]

22. It wasn't ownership of precious metals, but holding it personally, with which I disagreed.

Owning some precious metals is a good hedge for people who understand it, but that's not what you advised. You proposed that citizens get and keep in their possession $10,000 to $20,000 in gold, to allow them to best survive a complete economic and societal collapse. I think that's a bad idea because (1) keeping that kind of gold around is dangerous, as it is a magnet for burglary or home invasion, (2) the economy is not going to break down like that, and (3) even if it did, the guy with more guns will take that gold from you.

Better you should learn how to grow your own food, live where you can do so, and have your own water, septic and power systems, if you really worry about a great collapse of our country.



As for your other three enumerated items, my prior comments stand. Paying off debt in a time the dollar is declining makes no sense at all. Moving investments out of the country makes no sense, for it distances a person from their investments, and it undermines efforts to recover here. As for emergency plans, it's good to have those, but they are going to involve water, power, food, septic, medicine, and communications, primarily. They'll rely on a sense of community, too.

[vadawg]

24. +1 just one addition you need to be able to defend what you have

so weapons are important especially if the shit really goes down...

[Art_from_Ark]

35. The trick is to keep quiet about holding gold

or any money, for that matter.. You have to be discreet. If your neighbors complain about bad economic times, you complain, too. Tell them you don't know how you're going to make your car/house payment, even if you're not hurting. Never, ever tell your neighbors or basically anyone you can't trust that you're sitting on top of a miniature Ft. Knox.

[conscious evolution]

39. I have to agree with this

And not just for the gold.
Having anything useful in a collapse can make one look like a tempting target.Its best to keep such well hidden and only used when absolutely neccesary.

IMO,having some gold stashed is not a bad idea.It can be usefull in certain situations.

Someting I have noticed that bothers me somewhat.I am seeing a lot of commercials and ads for people wanting to buy gold lately.I have to wonder what is coming that people want to buy it todays prices.

[Vincardog]

58. The people advertising don't want to buy it at todays prices. They want you to sell it to them at

15 - 20% of today's prices, then refine it and sell it to you at 110% of today's price.

[LeftyMom]

25. I still think you're a loony.

:shrug:

[flvegan]

32. It stops being opinion when it is clearly fact.

[nini]

30. What's laughable is you seem to think most of us can afford all those things

I'm glad you can afford gold and are out of debt. Most of us are not pulling in enough income to do all those things so feel free to continue feeling superior and repost again in a few months to remind us how pathetic we are for having debt and not having 20,000 dollars in gold.

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

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[Crabby Appleton]

56. Looks like GrovelBot has come for your gold!

[Shagbark Hickory]

71. HA HA HA. ROFLLMYMFAO

[Johonny]

34. You know my Dad ran a gold purchasing business in the late 70s

oddly enough the company went out of business in the early 80s...
Just Sayin.

[DFW]

37. Adjusted for inflation, gold is still just around half of its peak in 1980

Statistics from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=a3w9OGzFRe3Y

" Bullion hasn’t kept pace with the cost of bread, fuel or medical care. In 1980, gold hit a then-record $873 an ounce. In today’s dollars, that would be $2,287, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s inflation calculator."

Not that I have a ton of alternative solutions to suggest (and having enough fire power to kill off the
hunger-crazed hordes trying to break down my door to grab my last can of beans isn't first thing that
comes to mind). Anyone with the presence of mind to have bought rare Russian coins about 20 years ago
did pretty well, since back then, no one figured the Soviet Union would collapse, and there would be
a few hundred Russian oil multi-zillionaires looking to buy SOMETHING. I met a guy from Florida who did
just that, sold them last year and made thirty times his money.

As a practical measure, it's always difficult to know when a peak has been reached, especially when a
frenzy is on. Gold is up something like, what, 20% or more in the last half year? In dollars, anyway.
Nowhere near that in Euros, of course. When my wife's car was destroyed in an accident last year, we
started looking for a new one. The day I paid for it (this was in April), it cost me $1.2965 per Euro.
Today, it would have cost me $1.50 per Euro.

Of course, I'd love to be self-sufficient, with enough water, septic capacity, and arable land to support
myself forever, but it's just not a viable solution, either back home in northern Texas or here in the
German Rheinland. What little gold I do have, I do not store in the house. The dollars I am paid for my
work do not go very far here in Euroland, and my wife's meager salary as a German social worker doesn't
go very far, either, but we don't spend more than me make, so it's OK.

As for the OP's recommendations: I am not out of the US stock market, but not horribly exposed, either.
One phone call, and I'd be rid of it all tomorrow, but with what to show for it? Dollars that pay (for
now) just about no interest? Gold or Euros at peak levels? I wouldn't have enough cash to buy some survival
ranch in New Mexico or someplace. Unless you are already so fabulously wealthy that you have long-term
survival quarters, stocked with enough food, fuel, and protection from the 99.99% of humanity that does
not enjoy such fortune, I'd say that we had all best hope there is not a total collapse, because the
only alternative to that is either shooting at people with no food, or being shot at because we're
the ones who have none.

About 30 years ago, I read an interesting pioneer of the financial catastrophe novel called "The Crash of
'79." After a local nuclear war lays waste to the Persian Gulf oil fields, but before it is widely known
that there will be no oil from the Gulf for 30 years, the main character (an American multi-millionaire),
just before the dollar becomes completely worthless, buys a $10 million ranch that he knew was for sale,
stocks up on lots of small gold coins, and lives supposedly, happily ever after.

The value of gold has always intrigued me. It has been considered a store of value for thousands of years.
But today, what drives it? Gold is not edible, pays no interest, you can't live in it, it won't heat
your house, keep you clothed, or make your car run. And yet, it is valued as a commodity and store of
value to a point where denying it is shutting one's eyes to reality. Hard to grasp if you never grew
up believing in it (and I didn't), but people have been building churches and temples for thousands of
years now, too, and not a one of them has ever proved there was a god. But they keep building those
churches, and people keep wanting gold. If you own a construction firm, and you are hired to build a
church, if the pay is reasonable, you don't refuse the job. Atheists have to eat, too. So, too with gold.
I may not believe in it as a true store of value, but I don't have to. All I have to believe is that there
are enough people are out there who DO believe it.

*on edit: sorry for the rambling!

[Tempest]

44. Two points

1) Investors don't consider the impact of inflation when looking for safety. The increase in gold can be attributed to the "safe" factor when Bush's fiscal policies caused the dollar to fluctuate widely and the market was no longer a given. And once the U.S. economy started it's nose-dive, the safety of gold became all the more settling.

2) No one is going to invest in gold, or anything else for that matter, when they (a) don't have the means and (b) believe the world is going to end and goods will be gotten from the barrel of the gun. Since investors don't believe in (b), gold is the perfect hedge against uncertainty.

[DFW]

64. To your two points

1.) This is true as long as there is either an inflationary or stagnant trend. A deflationary trend will probably not leave gold unaffected, especially when at historic highs (inflation unadjusted).

2.) Agreed, investors who have money looking for a home don't believe in your (b), although I know from
my friends back home in Dallas that the "armed and dangerous" crowd is stocking up on gold, to the extent
that they can, as much as the wealthy people. Still, while uncertainty favors gold, in a strong deflation,
gold will suffer as well, although not to the extent as paper, for sure. Paper can get wiped out, gold,
not so.

[mdmc]

38. where can someone buy gold eagle coins?

[librechik]

42. There should be a collector coin shop near you or in a nearby town

check there--I buy mine at Rocky Mountain Coin, it's listed online. It's just down the street from me.

[yodoobo]

62. Here is a good online source

www.apmex.com

[cbdo2007]

40. Anyone who gets their investment advice on DU.....deserves the major losses that

are coming to them.

Yep, go ahead and stock up on gold people. Put all your money in gold!!! ha ha ha

[anigbrowl]

45. Well, you would have made about 10% over the last 3 months

gold will still go up a bit over the next 3 months, as there is another 200 tons coming to market, about the same amount as India bought recently. If you buy some no then you'll likely see it appreciate 5% by January. I'm thinking about it (but by buying title rather than actual coins, which I think is a waste of time). On the other hand, my gut says it'll peak at $1250 or $1300...basically the day after the news reports a drop in unemployment, gold will go down too.

[Tempest]

51. We think alike

I'm looking at a peak of around $1,370 (something my broker agrees with me on) but not dropping below $1,150 for some time.

I hold both coin (I like shiny things) and title. That was something my father taught me. Coin for liquidity, title for stability.

One thing we differ slightly on is the unemployment figures. It's going to take at least a fiscal quarter of employment increases before gold reacts. And the reaction will be muted if there are no appreciable gains in the dollar to accompany it. The rest of the world's economies have to show improvements to follow the U.S. in order for gold to be affected in any measure.

[cbdo2007]

57. HAHAHAHA - You want me to get excited about 10% over the past 3 months?!?!

Good grief. Have you not seen what the stock market has been doing this year?

Ok, you're right. For all of you out there who want a "5% increase by January". Go ahead and stock up on gold. :) :) :)

5% - THAT's what you get when you get investment advice on DU.

I have found NO LOGICAL REASON to invest in gold over stocks. If you didn't get in at $600 or less then there is much, much more money to be made elsewhere.

[anigbrowl]

60. No, I'm just observing the way the price has changed recently

I am not tendering investment advice to anyone, nor am I impressed by your implications of amazing stock-picking ability, nor do I hold strong personal opinions about gold as an investment.

[Tempest]

47. I've seen major gains

And until I see evidence the price of gold is going to drop by a large amount, I'm keeping mine.

The price of gold can drop by half and my investment has still more than doubled.


But then, I didn't get my investment advice on DU. I got my advice from outside and shared it on DU. Much like a lot of people here.

[A HERETIC I AM]

48. Why is it that you can not see....

that buying an asset class at an all time high is the right thing to do?

Huh?

Why can't you see that?

How many times do you have to hear the mantra "Buy high, sell low"?

Sheesh.

[VOX]

43. And uranium mines are making a comeback; also, grow mushrooms in your cellar...

For fun and profit.

Then there are the future beachfront properties in Arizona, so you'll be all set after the "big one."

Harummph.

[distantearlywarning]

46. You know what's funny?

I remember the naysayers scoffing about gold and silver here several years ago. Back when gold was under $800 an ounce, and silver was about $12.

I refused to listen and bought a bunch of metals anyway. And I have made an absolute killing since then, with DU people telling me every other day for the last 3 years that gold was about to tank ANY MINUTE NOW OMGWTFBBQ SERSLY!!!111!1!!11 Meanwhile, my investments in the stock market completely died last year and never recovered.

I sold some of my metals recently to pay for a medical bill. 1/3 of the money I got from the sale was profit. Sometimes it pays not to listen to the jabbering herd here. :-)

[cbdo2007]

59. Thanks, this was hilarious.

Hope you aren't serious because your post could be shown to any finance class as what NOT to do.

You still bought gold too high and shouldn't have sold your stocks when they were down (or you should have picked better stocks).

But, who am I to judge. I'm happy for your (let's see: 1/3 of a 50% gain) 17% gain over the past "several years".

[distantearlywarning]

63. Just the kind of smug, assholish response I've come to expect from others at DU these days

But let me try to rebut in a thoughtful, respectful way (although I'm sure it will be completely lost in future snark).

I never sold my stocks, I still have the shares and hope that maybe things will improve someday in the future. I definitely could have picked better, but then again I'm in good company these days as far as that goes.

Not sure why you say "too high" in a derogatory way when we're speaking of buying at one price and selling at a higher price - for instance, buying gold at $10,000 an ounce and selling at $10,500 is still a profit, and that's the end goal. Also, the true value of anything, including metals, can be said to be only what the market will pay. If the market will pay $12 for a widget, then one is only buying widgets "too high" if one pays more than $12 apiece. I'm pretty happy with the $6 per ounce profit I made a few weeks ago when I (for instance) sold my $12 ounces of silver for $18 each, even if the original price was "too high" according to some arbitrary unnamed standard of metals pricing thought up by a random anonymous person posting on an internet message board (ok, that was a little snarky, but I couldn't resist...)

Actually, I'd say you were a bit jealous of my good fortune (as it sounds as though you didn't buy into metals 4 years ago when you should have). But then again, perhaps you were one of those unusual people who did well in the markets in recent days.

In any case, I'm not sure why you felt the need to post a bitter, smug response to my post. If you don't want to buy metals, that's fine with me. Feel free to not do so. I can't see how my my reaping of profit (or my stupidity, depending on your viewpoint, I guess) should make you so irritable. But best of luck to you, whatever you choose to do with your money and time.

[conscious evolution]

69. For some people

the concept of buy low sell high is too much for their brain to handle.
Makes me afraid for our country when people can't understand the most basic investment strategy.
Congratulations on your gains.Not a bad profit you made.

[Uncle Joe]

49. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, TwixVoy.

[dana_b]

50. LOL ... stock up on GOLD? how about stocking up my pantry?

good for you that you can do that but many of us here are nowhere near that point.

[derby378]

53. +1 - with a caveat

The OP makes a very good point, but there are alternatives if buying gold is out of reach.

You could convert some of your earnings to euros or UK pounds at a Thomas Cook Exchange. Sure, there's a charge for it, but if the dollar were to suddenly crater against either or both currencies, you'd still have plenty of profit after the middleman gets her fee.

[gaspee]

52. Know how I know things are going to get better?

And not worse - or at least get more stable?

The little guy thinks we're going down.

The top is usually reached when the little guy jumps in with both feet cause the market's going up! up! up! And the little guy is all doom and gllom when the bottom has been reached.

Learned this 100% truism back when I was an options trader on the floor of the old PCoast, LOL!

[Hannah Bell]

54. little guys get screwed on the up & on the down, that's how rich guys

make their money.

[Blue_Tires]

55. hell if i had the money to buy gold in the first place i wouldn't even be worried...

[Odin2005]

61. YAWN, gold bubble + suckers = LOL!

[JCMach1]

65. Yes, gold is up 10-12%..., but my portfolio is up by much more than that

over the same timeframe you mentioned...

IF you bought gold in the 500-600 range you did well for yourself...

I would never buy on what I would take as a peak in gold prices.

[whistler162]

70. Well don't publish your address....

since you have so much gold in your physical possesion!

You do have the gold in your physical possesion, don't you!