Introduction

This book is a distillation of over thirty years' experience working with private investors interested in adding gold to their investment portfolios. For many years, investors looking for a "how to" guide on private gold ownership have come home from the bookstore empty handed. With the publication of this guideline, a basic who, what, when, where, why, and how of private gold ownership is now available.

Over the past decade, the primary motivation for gold ownership has been asset preservation as stock markets around the world went into a tailspin, yields trended toward zero, and the dollar suddenly fell from grace on international markets. Gold performed that safe-haven function in admirable fashion. Now a new motivation for gold ownership has entered the market, one rooted in a dynamic shift in gold's supply­demand fundamentals, and strongly suggesting the possibility of much higher prices in the months and years to come. In addition to gold's bedrock role in the financial portfolio as the ultimate fiduciary asset, many investors have now begun to view gold as an architect of wealth. Almost on cue, the long dormant price has begun to rise in international markets with the metal logging price increases of over 20 percent in both 2002 and 2003. Many market experts see this as the opening salvo ushering in a new secular bull market in gold-one in which emerging market fundamentals, combined with concerns about the overall economy and financial markets, could potentially drive gold prices to levels we have not seen since the late 1970s.

With investor sentiment shifting in gold's direction, this book could not have come at a better time. You now have in your hands a practical and comprehensive "how to" for making an informed decision about gold ownership. Perhaps gold can offer you what it has offered countless others over the centuries: solid unassailable protection against the gathering storm as well as a means to building your personal wealth despite uncertain times.

Michael J. Kosares
Denver, Colorado