Gold finance

When buying gold as an investment we would not recommend doing so on any finance or loan-based system. It is suggested that gold forms around 5 - 10% of your wealth, and money should not be borrowed to fund any physical gold purchases. While the value can rise, and rise quickly at times, it is considered a long-term purchase that can take years to truly appreciate in value.

BullionByPost do not offer any form of gold finance purchase options, and orders must be paid in full promptly upon placing an order.

Gold traders

BullionByPost provides private investors with simple and transparent online access to trade on the bullion markets. We are the UK's number one online bullion dealer, based on SimilarWeb - UK Internet Traffic Share figures (June 2021 - May 2022), and with over 1,000,000 orders delivered we give some of the lowest prices for trading and storing gold and silver around.

Gold is the most popular of all the precious metals as a financial investment. Physical gold can be a means to diversify investment risk and, even though the gold market is subject to volatility, it has historically been most effective as a safe haven and hedge investment.

Trade costs

The fundamental gold trading price is set by the markets. When buying and selling, particularly in the short-term, investors should take into account of additional costs over and above the market spot price. Investors in physical gold will be paying for the cost of refining and minting the metal into various forms, such as coins or bars, along with the related taxes and handling costs. Means of storage and insurance costs should also be taken into account, and all bullion dealers operate at a margin - selling slightly over the market price and buying back slightly under in order to cover their own costs.

With the volatility of the gold market, even taking account of the trading costs, it is still possible to make short-term trading profits but gold is viewed by seasoned investors as a more long-term financial purchase; to act as a safe haven and hedge.

Keeping informed

It is advisable for gold investors to keep up date with bullion prices, news and market events; looking for trends and trying to predict - or at least prepare - for future movements. You can view the current and historic gold price in Pounds and compare this to the US Dollar and Euro on our online p rice chart.

Our BullionByPost website also carries a news section packed with formative updates relating to gold investments. Registered customers can receive regular emails with news about gold plus discount offers.

A few general points can be applied to the short-term gold market:

• A strengthening Pound should give more buying power to UK investors
• A strong US Dollar will generally mean a lower price for gold
• Rising stock markets will attract investors away from gold and also depress the price
• Geopolitical tensions often push up the gold price as safe haven appeal increases.

Less important minor influences are things such as the supply from gold mines and demand from industry, jewellery manufacturers and large national banks. Over the long-term, despite all these factors, gold holds its price and has never lost its intrinsic value as a hedge investment.

Our recommendation is to keep abreast of the news. Pay attention to the strength of the big currencies, global conflicts, bank or Treasury warnings, the state of the stock markets. Is the news positive or negative? It sounds like a lot of work, but in practice it can require as little as 60 seconds reading or viewing to gain the insight to invest for weeks.

Our BullionByPost 'Ultimate Guide to Gold Investment' provides more detailed advice. It does not offer personal investment or tax advice. For this you should seek independent advice from a qualified adviser.

For further assistance you can call us on 0121 634 8060 between 9am and 5:30pm, Monday to Friday, or you can email us at support@bullionbypost.co.uk.