Clockpuncher

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250

For me, I would just go with the 2020s but will defer to the wisdom of others on the forum! If you’re just stacking weight then maybe consider the Britannia as well given it tends to trade at a slightly lower premium over spot vs sovs due to being a larger coin. Haven't bought from that site before but pricing is seems pretty tight as per http://goldprice.eu5.net/#

The modern stuff will tend to trade more or less at bullion value but at least you know what you’re getting. On the older sovereigns there’s certainly a lot more interest/variety and potentially some (or indeed a lot if your choose correctly) numismatic upside but the learning curve is pretty steep and the potential for fakes etc on some of the rare dates is there. With my stack I’ve gone for modern dates on the sovs because I don’t have the knowledge to ascertain where the value is. Suppose it depends - are you clued up on some of the more historic sovs or are you coming at it fresh? What’s your ultimate goal - are you collecting coins or stacking weight?

Hey, yes still for sale - with one important caveat - Mrs Clockpuncher managed to rip the plastic wrap packaging so same silver bar and I still have the certificate, they just now come in separated form!

Very variable - I've had orders from some delivered within 2 days (Maples) but some orders are already 1+ month delayed (Britannias) - seems to be very much pot luck at the moment based on their staffing situation, supply of the desired coin, where you are in the queue and general size of the order backlog!

Not really that great - have a look at Bairds and you’ll achieve a lower price per ozt on their kilo and 100 ozt bars of silver. The really large bars can also be a bit illiquid and difficult to shift down the line so you’re likely better off sticking with 1kg bars or bullion coins if you can find them at good prices.

Hey, I'll take the last one if still available?

1KG Baird 999 silver bar in original plastic wrapping with certificate on back. £560 + RM special delivery at buyers risk (£11 if you want £500 insurance, £12 if you want up to £1k insurance). UK only. Payment via BT

If that worries you then don't invest in equities! That being said, my SIPP is 1/3 Scottish Mortgage IT, 1/3 Fundsmith, 1/3 Lindsell Train Global Equity and 1/10 Smithson - style is very biased towards quality growth and large cap so let's hope that trend continues! I think Vanguard offers a nice entry point to people who can't be bothered to rebalance and manage regularly. Over the long run you'll likely end up doing better than many (but not all) active investors given excess fees, and regular trading tend to kill returns.

Check out Vanguard, they do a range of very cheap and well diversified passive tracker funds which invest on a global basis - its very much fire and forget and friendly for those just getting up to speed with markets and long term investing. They run a 'life strategy' range which allows you to pick a risk profile which suits your circumstances - ie more equity exposure if you have a long time horizon, a bigger pot to play with or other significant assets like an unencumbered house, other savings etc.

UCITS is generally fine - it’s an EU wide set of rules to allow funds to be marketed across EU borders. Post Dec I would imagine the UK will try to keep alignment with the UCITS regime anyway as many funds/etfs which UK investors use are Dublin or Luxembourg domiciled anyway so have to be UCITS compliant. In reality who knows though!😅

HMRC won't bother checking your figures in the first instance. Errors will only get picked up if you get an enquiry either by chance or because your figures are materially different to what they expect you to be declaring based on what IB will feed them via common reporting standards now that those data streams are flowing. The point on non reporting foreign funds (which SLV, PSLV and almost all other US listed mutual funds/ETFs will likely be) is discussed here: https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-uk-reporting-fund-status/%24FILE/ey-uk-reporting-fund-status.pdf and more details on US ETFs specifically here: https://www.justetf.com/uk/news/etf/us-domiciled-etfs.html Just be careful with buying SLV/PSLV if you are UK resident.

@sixgunDirect debt and equity securities are usually straightforward for UK people. Issues arise on packaged products like mutual funds and ETFs where there is a wrapper holding some underlying asset mix - US versions can be bad for UK investors and UK funds definitely don’t work for US people. You won’t need key info docs and costs and charges disclosures can be calculated by IB for direct securities which explains why you can transact. They may struggle for foreign funds as some of the key underlying data isn’t disclosed in the proper format to allow them to give you the required ex ante disclosures. Alternatively IB may have you classified as an elective professional rather than a retail client, so they can sell you anything but the tax side of things is very much your problem as they are just distributing product and don’t have the same duty of care which is required for dealing with retail investors. The fact you’re trading in derivatives probably suggests they do.

Just be careful - some of the ETFs mentioned above are US listed. You probably wouldn’t be able to buy them through a retail broker anyway as they won’t produce a key info doc or a costs and charges disclosure and thus won’t be compliant with EU regulations (MIFID II). As a general tax point, UK residents would probably want something which is UCITS compliant and UK tax reporting status otherwise they might end up with any gains not qualifying for CGT and instead taxable at their marginal income tax rate. Ask a tax advisor if you are unsure!