"As a new member I would like your advice. I Bought ETF PHAU in June, which has still to make any profit. Which is the best method to buy gold? Which brokers would you recommend to buy overseas funds / shares? I have accounts with IG INDEX and also Hargreaves Lansdown. Service is great, wish I had known about you years ago."

Eoin Treacy's view Thank you for this interesting question. Gold has been in a well defined uptrend for the better part of a decade and the range of vehicles offering exposure to the market has increased considerably. There are now instruments to suit just about every risk tolerance. Therefore you first need to classify how much risk you are willing to take on so that your can ascertain which instrument is best suited to your needs.

The ETFS Physical Gold Fund is denominated in Dollars and listed in the UK among other markets. It is one of a relatively small number of funds that holds physical metal and aims to track the path of the spot gold price minus its charges which include management and storage fees and amount to 0.39% per annum. Since it holds the actual metal is could be considered a secure, conservative way of accessing the bullion market without having to actually buy and store the metal yourself. It hit a peak in June and is now marginally above that level so your position should be moving into profit unless you were charged an exorbitant broker's fee.

We have often referred to silver as high beta gold. This leverage to the gold price can also be accessed via platinum, palladium and some of the mid-tier un-hedged gold miners. There are also now a variety of highly leveraged funds available which I would regard as the highest risk way of accessing the market.

Remember that for an instrument trading in a secular bull market such as gold; it will be best bought following intermittent reversions towards the mean defined by the 200-day MA. Profits are best taken when it has accelerated away from that mean level. I do not feel qualified to recommend a broker for foreign listed shares but access to markets of interest and tight spreads should be a prerequisite for any search.