Physical or Paper Gold? Why?

[faaty]

Some people says physical gold is more important, I should have physical instead of paper gold. But I dont understand why.

I trade easily in paper gold, spread is low so I lose less while trading. Banking system is powerful in my country, Turkey.

Physical gold can be stolen easily, I dont prefer having gold in my home, it is so dangerous imo, thieves are everywhere in my hood

What do you think?

edit: Guys I have read all your comments but still not satisfied. You all say that paper gold is not gold itself, just a promise; so having physical gold is more trusting even there is a possibility of theft.

Maybe I understand something different when saying paper gold.

Gold account at banks such as HSBC, BNP Paribas or ICBC is really less safer than keeping the gold at home?? And even if these accounts are guaranteed by the government up to $30k in each account?

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[HabBear]

Good question. If you own gold on paper you don't actually own the gold. You own the rights to someone else's gold (usually an investment company). If that company goes out of business for any reason you could lose your money. If you own physical gold you have complete control over it. You're not at the mercy of the success of the business.

In some countries there are protections for investors if the company goes bankrupt.

Owning physical gold gives you all the control but you also have to find a place to store it, keep it secure, etc.

The same concept applies with Bitcoin.

[nara1892]

Good question. If you own gold on paper you don't actually own the gold. You own the rights to someone else's gold (usually an investment company). If that company goes out of business for any reason you could lose your money. If you own physical gold you have complete control over it. You're not at the mercy of the success of the business.


In some countries there are protections for investors if the company goes bankrupt.

Owning physical gold gives you all the control but you also have to find a place to store it, keep it secure, etc.

The same concept applies with Bitcoin.

I am totally agree. it is not about how safe the gold when you have it in your house or in a paper, but how you control it. I prefer physical gold than paper one because I can see it, but what about paper gold? does the gold really exist?

[AT101ET]

Paper gold is just like a banknote. You do not have the gold in your possession but the note/paper entitles you to a fixed amount of it.
When you buy paper gold it is like buying a bond. The paper isn't worth anything but the gold it is attached to is. If you would want to cash out it would be more difficult. If something were to happen to the issuing authority then your paper gold would be worthless.
If you had the physical gold in your possession then you actually have something that is worth its weight in gold according to market prices.

[odolvlobo]

Paper gold is just a promise to give you gold. Promises can be broken.

[hase0278]

Paper gold is just a promise to give you gold. Promises can be broken.

For me even if it will be harder to hold physical gold, I would still prefer it since it is safer to just lock it or get it on a safety deposit box on a bank rater than trust someone who promises to give gold because of some paper gold that I got. Like what the quote above says even if you lose only a little in trading paper gold because the spread is low, there's a chance that the promise will be broke by the one who promised you.

[ArdiPrabowo]

if gold investment i like and prefered use physical gold
if physical you can selling anytime and you need cash money, this mean is physical gold is liquid to cash money, you can selling anytime and anywhere

[ImHash]

Does gold price increase or decrease 20% in matter of one week? nope but bitcoin price does. bitcoin is only available digitally and if something were to happen it would effect all the existed coins. can you determine the exact amount of gold on earth or there might be more gold mines not found yet?
Did you know scientists now can easily produce fake (better say artificial/man made) diamonds? and who knows maybe someday in the future they could heat atoms enough to change them (fusion) into whatever element they want(like gold) but bitcoin is determined to be only 21m in total and safeguarded by the security that blockchain technology offers.

Now go on and trade your gold lol

[joae1975]

Physical gold has been valuable for thousands of years paper gold is a new invention and is easily manipulated by central bankers.

[wxa7115]

Some people says physical gold is more important, I should have physical instead of paper gold. But I dont understand why.

I trade easily in paper gold, spread is low so I lose less while trading. Banking system is powerful in my country, Turkey.

Physical gold can be stolen easily, I dont prefer having gold in my home, it is so dangerous imo, thieves are everywhere in my hood

What do you think?

If you like the easiness of trading from your home then paper gold allows you to trade in a very liquid market, but with paper gold you don’t own gold so if for some reason the price of gold were to increase a lot you will not be able to take advantage of it.

[HabBear]

Paper gold is just like a banknote.

I think this can be debated..  A banknote is backed by the full faith and credit of the government that sponsors, issues it. Paper gold is backed by the the assets the company issuing the gold investment has. Depending on your perspective you might trust the business more so than the government.

Physical gold has been valuable for thousands of years paper gold is a new invention and is easily manipulated by central bankers.

And this guy, no offense, doesn't really know what they're talking about. Paper gold isn't a "new invention" it's just shares in a fund that only owns gold. The idea is as novel as owning stock...which has existed for over 100 years.

Think about it this way - the companies offering gold investments (i.e., paper gold), have more to lose by scamming their customers than they do by actually scamming their customers.

[error08]

Good question. If you own gold on paper you don't actually own the gold. You own the rights to someone else's gold (usually an investment company). If that company goes out of business for any reason you could lose your money. If you own physical gold you have complete control over it. You're not at the mercy of the success of the business.


In some countries there are protections for investors if the company goes bankrupt.

Owning physical gold gives you all the control but you also have to find a place to store it, keep it secure, etc.

The same concept applies with Bitcoin.

I am totally agree. it is not about how safe the gold when you have it in your house or in a paper, but how you control it. I prefer physical gold than paper one because I can see it, but what about paper gold? does the gold really exist?

Yes, the gold is really exist (if you store it) in banks or trusted state-owned enterprises or at least government backed the firm.
Why we should store the precious gold under the supervision of another person (banks) instead of store it at home?
If your home is really safe without any risk of thieves, than it would be fine.
But, consider how much value of gold (ex: I have 5kg of gold), I prefer to save it in bank obviously.

[Kemarit]

Paper gold is just like a banknote.

I think this can be debated..  A banknote is backed by the full faith and credit of the government that sponsors, issues it. Paper gold is backed by the the assets the company issuing the gold investment has. Depending on your perspective you might trust the business more so than the government.

Physical gold has been valuable for thousands of years paper gold is a new invention and is easily manipulated by central bankers.

And this guy, no offense, doesn't really know what they're talking about. Paper gold isn't a "new invention" it's just shares in a fund that only owns gold. The idea is as novel as owning stock...which has existed for over 100 years.

Think about it this way - the companies offering gold investments (i.e., paper gold), have more to lose by scamming their customers than they do by actually scamming their customers.

Paper gold just like a piece of paper similar to stocks as you describe.The investor
also does not have a promise that they will ever hold the rights to any physical gold.
the OP trade on paper gold, good for you so you are probably profiting (or loosing)
on price swings. However, I think holding a physical gold has its advantage as well.
If you invest in this physical metal as oppose to paper, in case of a disaster like
currency crisis, economic disaster or financial system breakdown, then holding
a physical gold stored in vault is a good leverage IMHO.

[pooya87]

Some people says physical gold is more important, I should have physical instead of paper gold. But I dont understand why.

I trade easily in paper gold, spread is low so I lose less while trading. Banking system is powerful in my country, Turkey.

Physical gold can be stolen easily, I dont prefer having gold in my home, it is so dangerous imo, thieves are everywhere in my hood

What do you think?

the key part is what i made bold.
as others have said when you are using paper gold, it is a promise not gold itself. i agree that it is easier and more convenient but can you be absolutely sure that the promise they made to you will never be broken? if so trade away and have fun.

in any case both methods have their own risks.
for example buying physical gold is not only makes you susceptible to thievery but also it is always the risk of buying fake gold (e.g. there are some fake gold coins looking just like the real ones flying around in my country).

[frendsento]

Some people says physical gold is more important, I should have physical instead of paper gold. But I dont understand why.

I trade easily in paper gold, spread is low so I lose less while trading. Banking system is powerful in my country, Turkey.

Physical gold can be stolen easily, I dont prefer having gold in my home, it is so dangerous imo, thieves are everywhere in my hood

What do you think?

I would prefer to have a physical gold rather than to have a paper gold I have full control over it ! If I own a gold it isn't just a part but as a whole of it ! ofcourse owning a physical gold involve risk but it can be minimised If you can just carefully stored it to a place where only you can know ! physical gold is not that common nowadays so people can never tell of you had a gold or nothing

[GreenBits]

Some people says physical gold is more important, I should have physical instead of paper gold. But I dont understand why.

I trade easily in paper gold, spread is low so I lose less while trading. Banking system is powerful in my country, Turkey.

Physical gold can be stolen easily, I dont prefer having gold in my home, it is so dangerous imo, thieves are everywhere in my hood

What do you think?

I would prefer to have a physical gold rather than to have a paper gold I have full control over it ! If I own a gold it isn't just a part but as a whole of it ! ofcourse owning a physical gold involve risk but it can be minimised If you can just carefully stored it to a place where only you can know ! physical gold is not that common nowadays so people can never tell of you had a gold or nothing

Me too I will choose physical gold than the paper one.Like you said we have a control on it unlike the paper one.And it much better that you owned a physical gold because its more precious than the paper one.

[Xester]

Some people says physical gold is more important, I should have physical instead of paper gold. But I dont understand why.

I trade easily in paper gold, spread is low so I lose less while trading. Banking system is powerful in my country, Turkey.

Physical gold can be stolen easily, I dont prefer having gold in my home, it is so dangerous imo, thieves are everywhere in my hood

What do you think?

Just as you said it all depends on the location. Here in my area in the Southern Part of the Philippines we do not use paper gold. We are engaging in small scale mining operations and for us physical gold is much better than paper gold. Majority of the people who engaged in mining doesn't know about computers and paper gold has no value or useless for them. What they value the most is physical gold since its easy for us to exchange it to our local fiat currency.

[agustina2]

Some people says physical gold is more important, I should have physical instead of paper gold. But I dont understand why.

I trade easily in paper gold, spread is low so I lose less while trading. Banking system is powerful in my country, Turkey.

Physical gold can be stolen easily, I dont prefer having gold in my home, it is so dangerous imo, thieves are everywhere in my hood

What do you think?

If we are to compare both, they have different aspects, same goes for their respective usage and access by most of the people using this asset. If by any means you are having an advantage to one of them then goes in that way as you will feel comfortable there.

Just as you said it all depends on the location. Here in my area in the Southern Part of the Philippines we do not use paper gold. We are engaging in small scale mining operations and for us physical gold is much better than paper gold. Majority of the people who engaged in mining doesn't know about computers and paper gold has no value or useless for them. What they value the most is physical gold since its easy for us to exchange it to our local fiat currency.

With the current news about the closure of some mining companies there, I think it's time now to open new things and they can consider learning the art of accessing paper gold.

[Cashew]

I would greatly prefer physical gold just for the pleasure to touch it, to lick it, to talk to it. That would be stupid to buy a promise of a good rather than a good, especially if they are priced the same.

[Seansky]

I will always prefer physical gold since even if it can be stolen, for me it is safer to invest in it than just trust someone to keep gold for you since that's how paper gold works. I would rather lock my gold inside a locker on my house or get it into a safety deposit box on a bank they are more trusted for me than those people/companies who keep the gold you buy on paper gold.