Got mah, was RM150+ last week. This week 140+. Ringgit also strengthen compare to last week

totally agree with u. but i take my friend's situation, she can only afford monthly rm200 for investment. she would have save the money in savings a/c and earn the interest. instead, she use the money and buy a gram of gold in GIA, although it's riskier than savings a/c, but if she can sell it at higher price, she would have earn higher profit than gaining interest in savings a/c. let's say she buys 1 gram of gold every month (like saving rm200/mth), and sell them at a profitable price (assuming after 10 mth), she would have 10 x rm200 (her initial capital) + profit = rm2xxx. now, that she have more money, she can enter the stock market with it.

the conclusion is, not everybody has the money to buy stocks. some might just be able to squeeze only rm100 a month. while saving for a big chunk of money for bigger games like stocks, GIA is one of the options.

just my 2 cents

Gold near five-week low, stimulus outlook in focus

Gold hovered just above a five-week low on Tuesday as traders waited for guidance on when the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin tapering its massive economic stimulus.

"From the current economic situation in the United States, we expect only a mild tapering, not any big action," said Helen Lau, an analyst at UOB-Kay Hian in Hong Kong. "So there would still be support for gold prices."  Lau said if the Fed does not begin tapering its stimulus this year, gold prices could be between $1,400 and $1,500 by the end of the year.

"The technical signals are neutral now, with strong support at $1,307," Phillip Futures analysts wrote in a note.  "We are inclined to believe that the support level will not hold and prices are likely to head straight for $1,227.20 should there be large movement that breaks out of the current consolidative range," the Phillip analysts said.

all the qe/bond buying in the past years = lots of liquidity, lots of new usd money floating around = weak usd = high gold price.
add the hedge funds/etfs piling on gold = incredibly high gold price.

etfs have since pulled out, gold price dropped.
if qe tapers, usd will strengthen, gold price will drop further.
the uncertainty is how sharp is the taper, fast taper or slow taper or zero/never taper?
that will depend on fed's view of us economy, whether it is recovering, pretty sick or very diseased.
whatever it is, the usd is not going to get weaker than most currencies. as we all can see, after trillions of new usd, a usd sneeze sent rupees, rupiahs, bahts and ringgits down the drain quickly. see how weak some currencies actually are?

FOMC is coming 2AM, lets sleep well and wake up tml see how high the gold can hit la 

Already affected....where have you been?