GOLD gives you exposure to allocated gold held in a vault. This...

GOLD gives you exposure to allocated gold held in a vault. This is better than unallocated gold, but even though you can demand payment in gold holding phycical gold is the best crisis hedge. Trouble with physical gold is security (from being stolen) and insurance.

GOLD seems a reasonable way to gain exposure even if paper gold starts defaulting. GOLD may be exposed for recent trades, they trade paper gold and are exposed to counterparty risk until physical gold can be deposited into the vault. I'd guess this exposure is only a few percent of their total physical holding at any one time. Unallocated gold is the worry.