GLD vs spot gold?

[SanMiguel]

What is the difference between GLD and spot gold?
I know GLD is the ETF but why are there 2? WHy not just trade one of them?
I can do my analysis on GLD but because of the high margin, I can only action a trade on spot gold, which seems to have completely different prices...

 

[Rhody Trader]

I'm not sure what you mean by "because of high margin I can only trade on spot gold". It sounds like maybe you are confusing spot and futures here. GLD trades at roughly 1/10th the price of spot gold. You wouldn't need margin to trade that. You'd require margin for futures.

 

[SanMiguel]

I'm not sure what you mean by "because of high margin I can only trade on spot gold". It sounds like maybe you are confusing spot and futures here. GLD trades at roughly 1/10th the price of spot gold. You wouldn't need margin to trade that. You'd require margin for futures.

On a spread bet account, the margin rqd for trading GLD is much higher than the margin required for trading GOLD (spot) because they add an extra zero.
GLD value is 11423.0 wheras spot gold is 1169.0.
eg 1% + the leverage of 100:1

 

[Rhody Trader]

On a spread bet account, the margin rqd for trading GLD is much higher than the margin required for trading GOLD (spot) because they add an extra zero.
GLD value is 11423.0 wheras spot gold is 1169.0.
eg 1% + the leverage of 100:1

That's pretty bizarre. Makes one think they are trying to force folks into the spot vs the ETF. Better spreads for them, maybe?

 

[SanMiguel]

That's pretty bizarre. Makes one think they are trying to force folks into the spot vs the ETF. Better spreads for them, maybe?

Dunno. Their spread on GOLD is 5 (or rather 0.5 but the trade is £1 per 0.1) but the spread on GLD is 2 (£1 per 1).
So, I trade the ETF analysis but the spot price at present.

Opposite with S&P: US500 is spread of 5, ETF is spread of 7