Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

What is the best way to invest in gold as a hedge against inflation without having to hold physical gold?
Definitely look at CEF.   They have tax advantages over GLD and SLV, and have been around for 50 years, and are a Canadian company.  They hold their gold in 5 distributed vaults. Apparently tax advantage comes because with GLD, if you supposedly approach them with enough money, you can take out a "bar of gold".  Just one problem (well, perhaps more): a bar of gold is an enormous sum of money (and as such not very liquid), and apparently gold bars have special certifications and tracking, which one would mess up if one took it to there personal collection, costing additional sums to re-certify. many, many articles on the web claiming that the gold GLD has is highly leveraged, is held by someone else, and tons of other things that makes GLD seem semi-dubious. I've used CEF for years, talked to them quite a few times; to me, and short of having it my possession, they seem the best /safest / easiest alternative, and are highly liquid/low spread betwen bid and ask. The do also have a pure gold "stock" and a pure silver "stock", but these often trade at higher premiums.  CEF's premium varies between -2% and +4%.   I.e. sometimes it trades at a premium to the gold and silver it holds, sometimes at a discount.  Note that CEF generally shoots to have a 50/50 ratio of gold / silver holdings in their possession/vaults, but this ratio has increased to be heavier gold weighted than silver, as silver has not performed quite as well lately.  You can go to their web-site and see exactly what they have, e.g. their NAV page:  http://www.centralfund.com/Nav%20Form.htm