Gold & Metals ETFs Reaching Critical Mass in Size (GLD, IAU, SGOL, PHYS, PPLT, SIVR, PALL, SLV)

Gold ETFs just keep growing.  Investors are going to the shiny yellow stuff in droves despite that new highs keep getting hit.  As central banks race to zero on devaluing their currencies, gold is the historic asset to own.  It turns out that gold ETFs are hitting all-time highs in their assets under management as well.  We took a look at the most recent data on SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), iShares Gold Trust (NYSE: IAU), Sprott Physical Gold Trust ETV (NYSE: PHYS), and the ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSE: SGOL).  The figures are becoming something not too far short of absolutely baffling.

SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) is not just now above $50 billion.  This morning’s figures show a snapshot with a figure of $54,869,679,694.15 with some 1,305.69 tonnes.  iShares Gold Trust (NYSE: IAU) shows that it has now crossed the $4 billion mark as the site lists its ‘Total Net Assets’ as being $4,181,739,833.00.  Sprott Asset Management LP just announced that the recent successful follow-on offering of units now gives the Sprott Physical Gold Trust (NYSE: PHYS) assets which now exceed $1 billion.

ETF Securities USA LLC recently announced that the total assets under management of its four products, ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSE: SGOL), ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSE: SIVR), ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (NYSE: PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (NYSE: PALL), now exceeds $2 Billion combined (as of Sept 21, 2010) after only 14 months…. and the newest figure on the ETF Securities website shows $2.1954 billion in assets under management in the U.S.  Its gold ETF showed assets under management as being $955,879,682.00 as of September 24, 2010.  Its platinum ETF showed $491,398,710.00 in assets under management as of September 24.  The gold is now likely over $1 billion and the platinum is now likely over $500 million even if just by asset price growth.

Also in other metals ETFs, the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) now lists its assets as being a whopping $6,878,785,404.00 with 314,642,317 ounces or 9,786 tonnes.

If you want to know how large these are in comparison to world central banks, it is even more of a standout figure.  The SPDR Gold trust listed 1,305.69 tonnes (41.979 million ounces)… We have a fresh comparison for how this ranks with the largest central banks in the world.  In Monday’s FT the figures were as of 9/26-9/27/10 as follows:

CNBC gave a list of countries with reserves as follows earlier this year:

1. United States 8,965.65 tons
2. Germany 3,754.29 tons
3. International Monetary Fund 3,311.84 tons
4. Italy 2,701.9 tons
5. France 2,683.81 tons
6. China 1,161.6 tons
7. Switzerland 1,146 tons
8. Japan 843.25 tons
9. Russia 706.38 tons
10. The Netherlands 674.98 tons
11. India 614.58 tons
12. European Central Bank 522.54 tons
13. Taiwan 466.81 tons
14. Portugal 421.51 tons
15. Venezuela 397.6 tons

The differences in the central bank holdings is different obviously because of the timing snapshot, but we wanted to show two large shows like this.  The latest news shows that the IMF actually sold roughly 18.5 million metric tonnes of gold in August.

This week we also identified a series of gold laggard stocks that have underperformed peers by far and have mostly underperformed the gold ETFs as well.  Our partners over at Investorplace.com have “5 Sleazy Gold Coin Scams” to not get caught up in.

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JON C. OGG