If you look at the graphs, it reverse-mirrors what's happening in the global burses. If you think the markets are still going to keep tanking, and I think it is a good chance they keep doing so, then you can expect the price of gold to keep going up also.

Remember in the past the safe haven was the USD. So when the markets tanked, investors flocked to the USD. Now the USD is in the craphouse, so gold has become the new standard.

JP Morgan have just revised their gold price expectation that THIS YEAR it will hit USD2500/oz. Of course not everyone agrees, but I'm sure all the people who said that gold at USD1000/oz was too high to invest in and was definitely a bubble are a bit upset now...

Up to you. Sometimes convenience factors (branch near you, less queues, easy parking) overcome minor differences in spread. And if you are buying a lot, around 300g and above, you can nego the rate.

My thoughts regarding shiny gold and "paper" gold:

1) Gold accounts from the banks are backed by real gold (or so they claim anyway).

2) This talk about falling in love with something shiny in your hand is all well and good, but we are investors, not princesses. $$$ is what counts, not bling. Couldn't give a monkey's what it looks like and whether or not I hold it in my hand.

3) Physical is not very safe. If it gets stolen or house burn down, habis.

4) There is an inherent risk in the banks' gold investment schemes, as we are at the whims and fancies of their pricing structures, and if anything ever happens to the bank such that they cannot pay out, the money is effective stuck or gone. The good news is that these gold schemes are just play-play value-added services for the bank - they make such little money from it, if anything at all. There is no motivation for them to poison their customers with the pricing over something that is so incidental to their bottom line. As for the banks going bankrupt, well, my view is that if that ever happens to UOB, PBB or MBB, we have far bigger problems on our hands than worrying about our gold. I would start worring about how to farm rainwater and how to grow my own vegetables.

JP Morgan are targeting $2500 for this year.

It's only natural, given the bull run recently. Long-term uptrend is still very positive.