http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html

cheers GF.

Scares me too much..... Don't mind losing what I've got, but don't like the idea of losing what I haven't. If that makes sense....

you talked about leverage, but yes you are right .... CFDs can be a bit (dead!) scary; forgotten what spread bets are like but that might be worth looking at ..... ask IG ... can give you a contact if you need

No. It's OK. I looked into both of them. I even played on a few simulators. Made my mind up that it probably wasn't for me, especially after I lost about 4K of "pretend" money in one day. It could've been boredom at work, but alarming how quickly it disappears if you get the trades wrong. I suppose I wouldn't be as reckless with real money, but I figure best not take the chance. Buying shares and holding them isn't as profitable (because of the leverage), but at least I don't have to watch them all day, and as long as the trend line continues, I can normally leave with a profit.

Strawbs.

as you may have noticed, i generally can and do watch throughout the day, though it is certainly not my livelihood (would need to have rather more expertise!) ..... i also get some pretty good guidance from time to time from my pals at IG

I can only spend about 1 day in 5 watching the markets. I get the feeling trading is a full time job instead of a part time one. :-)

Strawbs.

my clients and work are nearly all IT and e-mail based, so easy (especially as i am a partner!)

Strawbs .... look at chart on post 31 ..... reckon you should think about taking profits at 13.00 where there looks a fair amount of resistance, or at least put nin a tight stop-loss

Maybe. I'm reading it as a breakout from a triangle formation (top 27/11 @ 1219, base 12/12 @ 823) giving around a 400 point move from the break point (25/1 @ 1051 ish). A move to around 1450 should be on the cards, at which point I'll consider selling depending on the current market conditions/prospects. If good I'll continue holding upto 1600. I'm expecting congestion around 1300, but since this moves in such large ranges I think I'd rather stay in than try timing a sell/buy. The stamp/commission on 2 trades would wipe out too much profit. I'm running a 10% trailing stop, which still gets me out with a profit, but needs a pretty big 120+ point swing to trigger.

Do your own research, in my opinion.....etc. etc.

Strawbs.

one advantage of CFDs is no stamp and very modest commissions

Yeah. I can see why that would make it a better trading tool. I'd probably drop out at 1300 on that basis too, but holding in shares doesn't really allow me that luxury. I'll just have a few weeks of wondering if my chart reading is correct or not. :-) I suppose having no leverage makes me more comfortable about taking a "wait and see" approach, rather than worrying about losing any big profits. Maybe that's why I didn't do very well on the spreadbet/cfd simulators. Reacting too quickly to the swings, rather than taking my usual "wait and see" approach.

Strawbs.

Has anyone worked out the impact of the rising Gold price on POG's profit potential?

Well my buy was based on technical analysis rather than doing the sums. However, the average price of gold between 06/07 was higher than between 05/06, and in the trading statement on the 22nd of last month, production was reported as 5% higher than last year. Don't know what the sums will look like, but it should mean results are better than last years. I'm hoping that'll push the price back towards last years highs. More tensions with Iran and a rising gold price won't hurt either.

All just in my opinion, do your own research etc.

Strawbs

charts on posts 31 and 35 are well worth a look .... not at all sure why sp is currently so weak, especially with gold price rising and singularly undemanding rsi .... so on reflection have decided to buy

and will buy some more this morning ..... read Telegraph Questor column this morning says it all ..... about as strong a buy endorsement as possible with 20.00 target set by Merrill

Lots of small parcel buying of POG today, probably due to a confidence boost by the Questor column in the Telegraoph -- nice to be able to access all this on line plus stacks of other information.

The story still looks good and the Merrill report placing a 20 price tag can do no harm. The geopolitical risk is still holding it back.

very good support shown on 25 dma from which sp has now bounced and just creeping through 50 dma .... however, for real progress, need to break 200 dma at about 1155 with some decent impetus

not too pleased to see sp just bobbing about rather aimlessly especially with gold so strong ...... however, if 200 dma properly breached (currently about 1155) which is really not far way, then there is a good chance that sp will zip on upwards.

I'd expect a rise maybe next week in the run-up to results.....assuming the wider market doesn't take a dive of course.

In my opinion. I don't hold.

Strawbs.

out of pure curiosity and nosiness, will u divulge what you do hold or are you still 100% cash?

That's OK. 100% cash. Mostly in accounts outside of my dealing one, which stops any temptation :-). I could probably buy a few bits with the money I've got available for investing, but the market seems to be ignoring all the clouds on the horizon, and to me that's the top of the bull market. I'm not expecting to invest seriously again now for 18 months to 2 years, but I will "trade" the odd share if the risks are low enough. SCHE I think is one of yours, which I did considered holding on to (no matter the market, we're all getting older) but in the end I decided to play it safe and take the money. Not big profits, but profits anyway. I'll see how POG shapes up over the next few days and might consider taking a position if the risk/reward is justified. I don't really have anything else on the radar at the moment though.


Strawbs.