The third book you should read on gold..........

Sorry all who thought this was a spectacular book. It just wasn't. Essential yes, there are from what I gather three essential books to read out there, but this one just isn't all you need to know. Here is why.......

To start, the first part of the book was magnificent, never in any other piece of work have I gone through more in depth information, referencing absolutely everything so I can go over what the author went over, absolutely beautiful. When I was done with this first 206 page written by John Katz I felt like I was connected to the gold market and could at least find where all the news is reported, this really is two books in one. John Katz doesn't really explain much on how to invest, but his thoroughness left me being a happy camper.

This brings us to Frank Holmes, I'm sorry people, but when you spend 62 pages(209-261) not referencing any investment advice, not really explaining entry exit advice, not telling people where to go to find in depth ways to perform fundamental analysis on mine companies deciding to do it your self, and then go on to shameless plug your services telling people to fork their money over to you and you'll take care of it! I was not a happy camper at this point.

So as I read in another review that you should only read the last part of the book, I'd say skip it and move on to another book. Most gold investing books are not that good anyway, but if you want to see what somebody who actually wants you to know how to invest has to say, then read The Traders Great Gold Rush, not a perfect book, but you can tell he puts the effort to really inform you.

Here are the 3 books I recommend and the order to read them in......

1. Rich Dad's Advisors: Guide to Investing In Gold and Silver.....Just a very good intro book nothing more.
2. The Trader's Great Gold Rush......Goes over REAL ways to invest.
3. GoldWatcher.....It is unique in the way it is able to describe the world of gold with more depth than any other book I have come across.

Shirley Conran OBE

THE GOLDWATCHER
(Demystifying Gold Investing)
Pub John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

"Since I started reading THE GOLDWATCHER I've made about £45,000 out of gold (before tax)so thanks to the authors John Katz and Frank Holmes.

So I recommend it as a good investment".

All You Want to Know (and Plenty You Don't) About Gold

"The Goldwatcher" is a big, heavy slab of a book, with lots and lots of data points and charts and tables. In short, "GoldWatcher" is a great reference guide. This book could serve up nearly everything you want to know (and maybe a good chunk of stuff you don't) about gold.

The fact that the book makes a great reference guide is both a blessing and a curse. One normally does not read a reference guide straight through, for instance, and that applies to this book in spades. Some sections are heavy enough going to be useful as a late-night cure for insomnia.

In my opinion the second half of the book is actually better than the first. The first half, "Demystifying the Gold Price," is authored by John Katz. The second half, "Gold Investing Strategies," is authored by Frank Holmes.

Frank Holmes is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer for US Global Investors, a San Antonio, Texas based family of mutual funds. I first met Holmes backstage when we both presented at the New Orleans Investment Conference in 2006. He is very sharp, and it shows in his half of the book.

Holmes starts by going through the details of exactly how his firm gets an edge investing in gold stocks. Early on he gives the opinion that "bullion is for value investors and gold stocks are for growth investors," clearly placing his firm in the growth camp.

In the chapter "Investing in Gold Equities," Holmes lays out the difference between "majors," "intermediates" and "juniors," and lays out the details for investing in each. In the following chapter, "Gold Mining Opportunities and Threats," Holmes digs into the five "key trends" for the gold mining industry: geography, current and future production, exploration spending, industry consolidation, and cost pressures.

Holmes also covers a range of important topics like seasonality, precious metals volatility, and gold stock mutual funds (besides his own of course).

The first part of the book, written by John Katz, offers a much more wide-ranging, top-down type view of the factors driving gold. Katz begins by asking "Why Gold?" and goes on to discuss the yellow metal's role as "stateless money" and a store of value in time of crisis.

Katz also covers the topics of supply and demand, the present state of the gold mining industry, the rise and fall of the gold standard, the economic consequences of 9/11 and the George W. Bush presidency, and more.

Some of the numbers felt a little off for a book published in 2008. To the best of my knowledge they are all correct, though, except for one glaring typo: I nearly fell out of my chair upon reading on page 10 that the Dow "closed above 23,000" at the end of 2007. (No doubt he meant 13,000, a slight difference!)

Katz also makes reference to another excellent book: "The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession" by Peter Bernstein. "The Power of Gold" is much more of a grand, sweeping historical tale... a wonderful walk through the pages of precious metals history, all the way back to the Lydian Kings of Old.

While Holmes and Katz are clearly not writers by trade, Bernstein most definitely is -- which makes Bernstein's offering far less useful as a reference guide, but far more pleasurable as a general read.

Another difference between the two books is that, while Katz and Holmes are clearly big fans of gold, the late Peter Bernstein is not - or at least he wasn't at the time "The Power of Gold" was first published back in 2001. At the end of Bernstein's book, spanning all the ages in which gold and silver have functioned as money, Bernstein finishes by noting that "the most striking feature of this long history is that gold led most of the protagonists of the drama into the ditch."

But "Bernstein changed tack," John Katz reports, after the events of September 11th 2001. A few years later, in 2005, Bernstein went on record in support of gold as a hedge against hyperinflation. (Something that is very much on investors' minds in mid-2009.)

So, really, there are two great books to consider here.

If you want a detailed reference guide with all the possible angles one could think of on investing in gold and gold stocks, complete with hundreds of charts and data points, then "The GoldWatcher" could be a great buy.

If, on the other hand, you're more interested in the fascinating tale of gold as money, stretched out over the great arc of history from ancient times to the turn of the new millennium, then Bernstein's "Power of Gold" might be a better choice for you.

Great reference

Meticulously researched with loads of historical references, charts and up-to-date industry analyses. The Goldwatcher is well balanced, and readers are challenged to understand the various forces influencing the price of gold. It isn't enough to say gold is a good investment. The authors encourage a balanced approach. Ideas like the subtlety between investing in a pure gold producing company and a gold-copper company, ETF, currency correlations and gold seasonality are very insightful. Not having an economic or investment background the book was a hard read for me. It should be a good reference as I learn more about gold investing.

A few typos: P.45, Table 3.3 are for Countries & Organisations owning over 100 tonnes - not "1000". Also the same table, the total tonnage doesn't add up to 24,305.8 but only 6,384.5 tonnes. P.85, it should be "But it is most unusual for the (creditor) to provide collateral to the (debtor)", not the other way round. P.99, in reference to the Vietnam war, "The original budget projection in 1966....." - not 1996.

From Doug Casey's "Big Gold" Newsletter

"There is no doubt about why the mythical treasure at the end of the rainbow is always a pot of gold and never a few truckloads of copper, zinc, coffee or anything else. Gold is the great consolidator of value"

So begins the well-written, highly informative and useful new book "The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing" by John Katz and Frank Holmes (foreword by Dr. Marc Faber). Part One is the work of John Katz, who is neither a gold bull nor a bear but an independent analyst. He provides a thoughtful examination of gold's history and of the metal's role in the turbulent 21st century. In Part Two, Frank Holmes offers a tour of the inner workings of U.S. Global Investors, including how they go about picking stocks and what companies he believes have the greatest potential in the current bull market.

By the time you finish, you'll be among the best-informed gold investors on the planet. It's that good.
The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing