What Is A Gold ETF?
Saturday, December 25th, 2010The term ETF stands for exchange traded fund. An ETF for gold is a purchase of the precious mineral that is traded on a major stock exchange. It usually is an investment in more than one company, and it is usually conducted on the American Stock Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ both enable investors to buy gold ETF but not to the extent that AMEX does.
A gold ETF fund buys up a lot of gold and stores it. The fund then issues groups of ETF stock. The expectation is that the gold will go up in price, driving the shares of its stock up as well. Of course, the best gold ETF is one that has consistently delivered a profit for its shareholders. The first ETF for gold was introduced by Central Fund of Canada in 1961.
There are two distinct advantages to buying precious metals through an ETF. First, a gold ETF is the easiest way to buy bullion. As with any other stock purchase, all it takes is an online transaction or call to a broker to make it happen. Second, most ETFs allow an investor to purchase fractions of an ounce, which lets someone without a great deal of investment funds to take part in a gold buy.
There can as well be tax advantages to owning gold through an ETF. Many countries do not consider the ETF investor as an owner of the precious metal for purposes of taxation. Capital gains taxes are usually less for ETF trads than other more traditional mutual fund trades. This is because of the way the trades are structured in ETFs. It is all very technical so I will not address it here, but it is enough to know that ETFs are considered a tax advantaged investment.
