"Investors are voting with their feet," said Ian Preston, a...

"Investors are voting with their feet," said Ian Preston, a resources analyst with Goldman Sachs Australia Pty in Melbourne. "They can get all of the leverage they want out of going straight into an ETF without any of the operational risk, or political risks, or general risks associated with equities."

From an interesting article titled "Gold Shares Cheapest Since 2002 Are ’Coiled Spring’ for Rally" at

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-30/gold-shares-cheapest-since-2002-are-coiled-spring-for-rally-commodities.html

My comments:

This Goldman Sachs employee has invented a new meaning for "leverage" in "They can get all of the leverage they want out of going straight into an ETF" because there is NO price leverage possible to a rising gold price investing in an ETF which just tracks the gold price.

In addition, why would I be interested in purchasing paper units issued by an ETF managed by a heavy paper gold short (surely a conflict of interest?) and with no entitlement to individually request and get hold of the physical gold that allegedly backs the units I purchase?