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Pastimes : A Jackass, his PAL(indrome), and GOLD -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (1092)	3/28/2003 4:17:05 PM
From: Wyätt Gwyön	Respond to of 1210

latest Calandra article talks about Gold Bullion Securities, the new gold ETF-type fund which trades in Australia. today was the first day of trading and they only traded 730 ounces! price is apparently 1% over spot, with expenses equal to 1% over 4 yrs. this does not sound bad to me. CEF, a closed end bullion fund, has, i believe, traded up to 20% or more premium over NAV. 1% over spot does not sound outrageous. also, expenses equal to 1% over 4 yrs works out to 25 basis-point expense ratio, which is very attractive compared to most mutual funds. equity mutual funds are typically 100 bp expense ratio, and some gold mutual funds have expenses exceeding 200 bp. more to the point, if one were to buy bullion directly, there are holding costs and such that can easily exceed 25 bp. Fidelity told me their holding fee is 50 bp a year, plus 1% commission each way on trades. the downside that i see to the Aussie bullion fund is that it's not available in the US. i called my broker, who told me he could buy it for me after 40 calendar days. apparently the SEC imposes a 40-day "seasoning period" before US brokers can sell newly issued foreign securities in the US, unless they also trade in the US as an ADR. meanwhile, hopefully there will be a US gold ETF before long. i really look forward to being able to buy bullion through them.