Being the only financial instrument to show decent returns since the beginning of current turmoil, gold is increasingly attractive to the retail investor.  The financial services community responds by offering a multitude of vehicles for online gold trading and gold investment that may serve the needs of any gold investor.

In choosing the vehicle for online gold trading, the purpose of investment is the primary factor.  Gold can be viewed as anything from a reserve monetary asset to a volatile speculative commodity.  The factors that should be considered when choosing the most suitable way of investing in gold include the purpose, the term, transaction costs, and associated risks. 

The list of available vehicles for investment in gold includes, in the order from ultra-conservative long-term gold investment instruments to short-term gold speculation instruments, the following:

- physical bullion in the form of gold coins and gold bars; 

- physical gold in allocated storage;

- physical gold in unallocated storage; 

- gold ETFs; 

- bank deposits nominated in gold and/or other precious metals;

- gold futures;

- gold options; 

- forex spot gold;

- gold miner shares and warrants;

- gold juniors.  

The placement of gold miners in the end of the list as the ultra-speculative instrument can be challenged, especially in the case of stocks like Barrick Gold, which definitely are investment grade, unlike some of the preceding instruments.  However, such labeling is warranted by the fact that gold mining stocks may perform very differently from gold spot price and carry the largest bouquet of various risks associated with all stocks.