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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 6, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I have a sizeable fraction of my retirement allocated to IAUM. But the boomer on my shoulder[proverbial] of course nags me that “not your wallet, not your coins”, and it feels inevitable in the long run that one of these will happen:

  1. One of the custodians or one of their employees will quietly steal some bullion, just plain theft;
  2. One of the trustees or one of their agents will deviously steal some bullion, in some elaborate book-cooking scheme; or
  3. An external party will forcefully steal some bullion, in a dramatic heist.

Am I correct in thinking that paying to maintain a ladder of moderately long-dated (say 1y), moderately OTM (say 15%) PUTs on IAU is the only way to really insure against those risks?

For example, -IAU260116P42 had an Ask of $0.60 today — does that mean that it would have cost 100×$0.60 = $60.00 to buy a “16-month insurance policy with a 15% deductible” on 1.88 troy ounces of BlackRock’s gold IOUs, or am I dangerously misunderstanding how options work?

Im probably not helping in a "beysian" or "utilitarian" sensense but i agree with the proverbial boomer on your shoulder.

When push comes to shove or shit hits the fan, money in the bank trumps money in stocks (or blockchain), and money in hand trumps money in the bank.