About

… the financial system depends on information asymmetry because this is what allows one part of society to transfer wealth, respect, belief to the other … one has to question everything, apply critical analysis to everything and invest ever greater amounts of time and energy to filtering out the rubbish from the quality (objective) content. Izabella Kaminska
In January 1993 I started looking for my first full-time job. With the unemployment rate at 12% being picky wasn’t an option but it still took 6 months to find an assistant retail manager job with The Reject Shop out in the suburbs.

A year on I took a job with The Perth Mint in their retail outlet in Sydney. I had absolutely no interest in precious metals – the main thing that attracted me to the job was the chance to wear a suit in the CBD, with my head full of some silly Wall Street/The Secret of My Success style fantasy of making it big.

In the late 90s I started to read gold commentary on the internet. I naïvely consumed this stuff and thought the writers were letting me in on their inside information on the gold markets. As I progressed in my career and learnt how the gold business actually operated, I realised that a lot of the time people were just making stuff up and talking rubbish.

At first I thought this tabloid type material was something to laugh at, but later I got angry because I realised this isn’t about something unimportant like which football club is better, it is about your money and your financial future. It annoyed me so much I started this personal blog on gold in May 2008 on my own time.

A lot of gold commentators present themselves as speaking truth to the power of mainstream financial markets. What I worked out as I blogged was that many of them were either:
  1. cynical promoters more concerned about getting you to buy their product/service than facts or your financial security, or
  2. so one-eyed in their distrust of mainstream markets that they would publish/republish any pro-gold story without thought.
Their stuff works because it sounds plausible to a layperson, the irony being that they are taking advantage of your gold and silver “information asymmetry”, rather than trying to get rid of it. To help you “question everything”, “apply critical analysis” and “filter out the rubbish” I will try my best to provide you with balanced and objective commentary on the gold and silver markets.

Balanced means you will not read about how gold is only going to go up. Objective means I’ll aim to stick to the facts (not easy when much precious metal market activity is hidden).

So don’t expect any perma-bull stuff or attempts to “sell” you on precious metals. Instead, I am going to assume you
  • are an intelligent investor who wants to make your own decisions;
  • want both for and against arguments; and
  • don’t need constant reassurance you made the right choice buying precious metals.
If that’s you, then I think you’ll get some value from my scribblings.

The content on this blog is not endorsed by ABC Bullion or Pallion (or any of my previous employers, when I worked there) in any way. For more background on me and this blog see my LinkedIn Profile. I tweet all my posts and other thoughts here @bronsuchecki

Social Media Identities

My development into a full blown gold tragic was gradual. Over time I have accumulated the social media “identities” listed in the tables below. I put this together because I got an email once from a guy who thought someone was impersonating me because he didn’t think it possible that an employee would be on a gold forum out of normal business hours arguing about some arcane point. Oh how my wife wishes that was true.

Below are some precious metal discussion forums, which are a good place to ask questions if you are new to precious metal – people on them are generally helpful and the advice is often OK. I only check the Silver Stackers Forum daily, the others infrequently.

Forum Name & Link to Profile
Aussie Stock Forum Bron Suchecki
Gold is Money Bron Suchecki
Gold-Silver.us Bron Suchecki
Hotcopper bronsuchecki
Kitco Forum bron suchecki
Permanent Portfolio bronsuchecki
PM Bug bronsuchecki
Silver Stackers bron suchecki

Below are my identities for websites that require unique sign ons or identities used in commenting apps (eg Disqus). My use of these sites is not an endorsement or recommendation.

Website Name & Link to Profile
24hgold Bron Suchecki
Blogger Bron Suchecki
Disqus Bron Suchecki
Facebook Bron Suchecki
FT Alphaville Bron Suchecki
Google+ Bron Suchecki
LinkedIn Bron Suchecki
Macro Business bronsuchecki
Peak Prosperity bronsuchecki
Seeking Alpha Bron Suchecki
Silver Doctors bronsuchecki
TF Metals Report bronsuchecki
Tumblr bronsuchecki
Twitter Bron Suchecki
WordPress Bron Suchecki
Zero Hedge Bron Suchecki
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