GSUL

Back in the office and just cleaned up the inbox. I'm sure all 52 present at GSUL 5 would agree that it was very productive. All the formal presenters had valuable insights: Professor Antal E. Fekete, Darryl Robert Schoon, Tom Szabo and Nathan Narusis; but just as much was learnt from the insightful questions of the attendees. This is not surprising, as they were, as Nathan so aptly described, "self made wealth, independent thinking" people. I sensed early on that the presenters were initially a bit taken aback at the directness of the questioning, but maybe that is just the Australian way and commendations to the organisers for going with the flow. Also productive were the after session sessions down at the bar. The internet is a valuable technology for communication, but so much more seems to get done face to face - we are social creatures after all.

A few ideas/things I thought needed work on from the session:

1. AUD basis - does this really exist (eg we need to use aussie cash rates and aussie spot price) or since USD trading dominates the gold market, should we really study USD basis and trade/interpret that, only converting profits back into AUD?
2. Confiscation - my speculations on this and the application of Part IV of the Banking Act 1959 (see my August blog for background) seemed to be of interest and I will finish my blog on this shortly.

3. Warehousing of precious metals - what is the real warehousing cost, and particularly the correct relative storage charge between gold and silver? Also consider that where gold can be lent, or stored "free" as with the Mint's unallocated, there is no warehousing cost so how does this affect the basis, particularly the AUD basis?

I look forward to the continuing discussions.