Exchange Traded Funds – all of the risks and none of the rewards

ETFs should not be owned by serious professional investors

ETFs offer none of the benefits of physical bullion ownership
 ETFs are no cheaper than owning physical allocated bullion stored and insured in secure vaults
 ETFs are not as secure as owning physical allocated bullion either via a bullion fund or an allocated bullion account
 ETFs provide no returns above the bullion price, only the likelihood of tracking at a discount or potentially failing to track the bullion price at all

ETFs do not provide 24 hour liquidity, unlike the bullion market itself

GLD (SPDR Gold Trust) and SLV (iShares Silver Trust)
 GLD and SLV shares not like equity or mutual fund shares

Bullion ETFs ‘track’ or ‘reflect’ the price of gold or silver

Investor undertaking ETF ownership has undivided interest in the
underlying assets, and not any allocable portion of a precious metal (no
specific gold is allocated to each share)

ETF assets are held by a passive trust, not accountable as a mutual fund

‘Like a stock’, but confer none of the rights

My note: This is a good file to send to friends that are not comitted to pms.

http://www.hindecapital.com/docs/hil_reports/Hinde Capital - Precious Metals ETF Alchemy Aug 12 2010.pdf