The Golden Compass—Your Gold Investment Resource Guide

For the past decade, gold prices have been on a breathtaking ascent and have reached some of the highest recorded summits in modern history. Many investors speculate that these values will rise even further.

History has shown us that the strength or weakness of the global economy determines the value of this iconic precious metal. Rising gold prices often coincide with weakening currencies and economic uncertainty and act as a “compass” indicating the direction the economy is heading. Being able to read this compass is critical!

Beginning with the credit crisis of 2008 and the deep recession that followed, our Treasury has engaged in massive stimulus programs by borrowing and spending almost $1 trillion and our central bank (the Fed) has supported a massive and unprecedented expansion of the money supply—both threatening to weaken our currency and trigger a painful cascade of inflation.

The meteoric rise in the value of gold reflects a common, global perception that world currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar, are under threat. When investors distrust the stability of a nation’s currency—especially a currency as important to global commerce as the dollar—they look for hard assets of true value that can protect their hard-earned wealth. Learn how you, too, can safeguard your wealth, hedge against adversity, and diversify your portfolio through gold investing.

In this book, you will find answers to those questions on everyone’s mind:

· Why is the price of gold increasing so quickly and dramatically?

· What do these increases tell us about the health of the overall economy?

· Can gold be a safe haven for wealth and a hedge against economic turmoil?

· What does the modern investor need to know about gold?

· Where and how can I buy or invest in gold?

Graham Spiers began his career in the early 1970s, just as the Nixon administration abandoned the Bretton Woods agreement, ending the dollar’s fixed price to gold and launching the modern-day version of floating foreign exchange rates which remains with us today. For the next twenty years his work focused on managing large corporate exposures to precious metals and foreign currencies. He implemented numerous strategies to both protect companies from exposures in their operating divisions and to trade and seek profit from exposures in their finance divisions.

After attaining the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1992 his career focus shifted to managing global capital market portfolios. For several years he managed and actively traded a $6 billion portfolio of currency positions for clients of State Street Global Advisors. Later, as a senior portfolio manager for Putnam Investments, he managed global balanced portfolios with holdings in all asset classes, including stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities with an aggregate value of $15 billion. In this role he managed several large mutual funds and numerous institutional separate accounts for corporations, endowments, foundations and high net worth investors.

For the past eight years he has been the Chief Investment Officer of a High Net Worth investment advisory firm where he has managed global portfolios for a diverse group of clients. Graham served in the U.S. Navy and received a BBA from Nichols College.