This is the offer from Bullion Vault, which shows up if you go on their site and click on the register button
“To get you started we give you free gold and free cash.
Our default WELCOME code usually gives you 1 gram of bullion, $1 (US Dollar), €1 (Euro) and £1 (UK Pound Sterling)
Use it and you can immediately sell and buy gold on the BullionVault order board. If you use the order board skilfully you can accumulate a growing balance. You'll find you can use all the vaults and all the currencies. You'll quickly see how easy it is.
You'll be trading live and just like any normal BullionVault account, only smaller, and at our risk. With average skill you'll find you can trade about 8 to 10 times in each currency, because on BullionVault commissions are so low that's how long it will take to cost $1.
You cannot withdraw your promotional balance unless you've funded your account, and if you abandon your account we'll take back the balance after a month or so, so that someone else can have a go. If you do fund your account you'll be adding to the gram you already own and it will be permanently yours.
That's all there is to it. Enjoy it.””
There is no strategy guaranteed to increase or even to maintain wealth. Diversification
does not necessarily improve performance because of the high correlation between
eg the American market and Chinese exports. However, if one takes the view that
there is merely the possibility that the problems of excessive leverage in the financial
system are not guaranteed to have been cured by the printing of money, then it makes
sense to consider hedging by investing in alternative assets -
Not that I am claiming that gold is cheap above $1,000, but it is still a hedge.
Several problems arise with buying gold -
i) Your budget may not suit an ingot size
ii) If you take delivery of bullion you need to arrange secure storage and insurance
iii) Bullion that has been delivered outside of the secure system of vaults has to be reassayed at time of sale to guarantee both its’ purity and weight to ensure that it has not been reduced or tampered with.
iv) You may want to sell only part of the value of the ingot.
All of these problems can be dealt with by buying gold through Bullion Vault. You will need to carry out your own due diligence, but eg the Financial Times has stated that this innovative on line trading site ‘dramatically cuts the cost’ of buying and holding gold.
Registration on the Bullion Vault site is free, and there is no need to deposit funds. If you think that this is the wrong time to buy gold, and want to wait for a pullback in price to a lower level, it is still a good idea to register and go through the processes so you can act promptly if and when the time seems right to buy. And have a play with the platform with the free gram ........
STOP PRESS
Silver dealing has now been enabled on Bullion Vault.
Just as with gold, all silver
is fully allocated, and it
belongs to you the moment you buy it. Dealing is settled
instantaneously
inside the London vault. Your silver
holding is proven from the next day's Daily Audit.
There
are five key differences you need to know:
#1. Gross Weight, Not Fine
London silver
takes the form of 1,000 troy oz Good Delivery
bars, assayed to be 999 parts pure silver
per thousand. In
line with standard bullion market practice, all silver
bought and
sold at BullionVault is accounted gross, not
fine.
#2. Silver Dealing Commission
This
runs independent of gold, but is charged at the same
rates. So you'll pay 0.8% on
your first $30,000-
silver, 0.4% on the next $30,000 and so on, regardless
of
your gold holdings.
#3. Silver Custody Charges
Also independent of gold, but slightly
higher, because
silver takes up more physical space in the vault. You'll
pay 0.04%
per month on the silver you hold (minimum $8
charge). The annual rate is 0.48%.
Reserved
bars are available on holdings of 1,000 troy oz
and above (31.1kg). Reserving a bar
costs 0.10%. Custody
rises to 0.06% per month. There is no fee to release your
reserved
bars, ready for dealing.
#4. Larger Silver Deals
Larger orders for one tonne of silver
or more ($500,000
upwards) can be dealt direct on main market. Please
telephone for
details.
#5. Physical Silver Withdrawal
As with gold, physical withdrawal of silver
is available
but not recommended. Withdrawals can only take the form of
whole 1,000
troy oz bars, with a charge of 10% plus VAT
(currently charged at 17.5% by HM Revenue
& Customs). The
cost to withdraw one tonne -
dealing amount
-
Q. If I buy through Bullion Vault, aren’t I just holding paper (or electrons) rather than bullion?
A. In absolute terms, yes. There are safeguards in place, check them out, but yes. But if you want, you can actually take delivery of bullion from Bullion Vault. There are downsides, and they don’t recommend it, but you can do so (see the notes on silver withdrawal above). And this is still good place to buy your bullion at a competitive price.
Q. What about buying and holding eg krugerrands or sovereigns instead.
A. Obviously there’s a premium to pay over the bullion rate. And theft/insurance issues too. You have to hope that the premium increases rather than decreases. But there are plenty of worse ideas than buying gold coins. They are saleable in small quantities. And dare one say, giftable in small (or large) quantities. And one does not have to take one solution to the commodity component of the investment condundrum
Follow this link to read what the Financial Times had to say about Bullion Vault
Gold may be a throwback to primitive times. But so is mankind.
Gold will not go to zero.
Which other currency can you be so sure about?