My IRA portfolio is 100% stocks. Should I consider converting some of it to gold?

With stocks falling and gold starting to rise is now a good time to do this?

It would have been better a few days ago, but it's not to late. I think gold has a big upside coming. Look up the Central Fund of Canada, traded on the AMEX:CEF

http://www.centralfund.com/

NO,NO,NO.

Don't panic. It'll be ok as long as you are in it for the long haul.

Market will bounce back.

What you really need to do is assess your risk tolerance ad set up a diversified portfolio with stock (including international), bonds and maybe a bit of gold and maybe some REITs. If you don't have enough money to buy a selection of funds, simply buy a target date retirement fund which contains several funds within one fund. I suggest Vanguard as a place to buy one of these funds.

This site has links to risk assessment quizzes and how to set up a diversified portfolio.:

http://www.saveyournestegg.com/diy.html

Here are the proper rules to follow:

1. Do not chase past returns. People that buy funds because they have done well in the past are doing exactly that.

2. Do not market time. Market timing is buying based on your (or your newsletter, or your TV, or neighbor's) guess about what is going to happen in the future. Even if someone knows something, you've already missed the boat. The price already reflects what you just found out.

3. Use index funds. Over time, index funds outperform actively managed funds, mostly because they do not have those high expense ratios. Some actively managed funds do beat their index, but the ones that do usually do not do so consistently. So why gamble? Use index funds. If you want to use a few actively managed funds, make sure that the costs are very low. Vanguard has some good ones.

5. Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Own a mix of bonds, domestic equities (large, small and mid cap funds), an international fund and perhaps a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) and emerging market fund. Four to six funds is all you need. Know your risk tolerance and set up an appropriate asset allocation. Rebalance as needed.

6. Consider taxes. Use the least tax efficient funds in your tax-deferred accounts and the most tax efficient funds in your taxable accounts.

Anyone that is freaking out over their investment losses should go to www.saveyournestegg,com to learn how to invest...not gamble.

It's a little late. Gold & other commodities are on the way down.

i think you may have missed the bus

Please check again.

Both gold and stocks are way off their highs.

the best idea is to stay put at this time, and wait for the markets to bounce back.

selling now, will mean you have to sell at low.

p.s. i would prefer bonds over commodities anyday. especially with the high euribor rates we have at the moment.

Gold and other precious metals are always a good hedge against market turmoil. If you watch silver too, it was up around $17 earlier this year and is now around $11.

I'm not financial adviser, but precious metals are in my pool of investments.

Gold has gone from above 1000 to below 750 in a very short time frame. That's a 25% loss that requires a 33% gain to get back to even, during the same time frame when "experts" were saying it was going to 1600 - including chartists of major firms and Cramer shouting this would happen on his TV program. That did not happen because of the commodity fall. All commodities are weak at present, as the dollar is strong. There is no reason to rush in on commodities, because if and when they cycle back up, it will be a trend up, and you wouldn't want to be the first person in on that - rather you'd want to wait until you saw it was an established trend. The thing you want to remember is that they cycle in multi-year trends - not weekly ones. Gold takes the stairs up, but the elevator down. Be careful.

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