Help! On a Gold "investing" report?

Owning gold isn't really "investing" because it doesn't pay you any interest or dividends. When you make money strictly off the hoped for price change it's called "speculating". It is possible to invest in gold by buying shares in a gold mining company, probably in Canada, Australia or South Africa.

You can buy gold in person at a coin or precious metals dealer and take it home. There are significant fees with this. Visit a coin dealer. You can also buy shares in a fund that holds a large amount of the metal. This has stock broking fees, which are lower because you don't actually touch the metal and it's all done by bookkeeping.

I'd avoid the GLD and SLV ETF's, even though they track the spot price of gold and silver well, respectively. When and if there is a failure to deliver on the COMEX, the prices of gold and silver will spike up, and when the inventories are NOT there as they are supposed to be, all you'll have are paper certificates to non-existent inventory. ETF's are fairly efficient with low fees, but when the ETF is based on a commodity that is being surreptitiously suppressed by the commercial shorts, the laws of supply and demand get distorted. Bottom line: the gold swaps which the Fed is engaging it means they are leasing out that same of ounce of gold to a multitude of bullion banks--they don't all have it in their inventory. So when buyers (longs) like speculative hedge funds demand physical delivery--instead of settlement via cash, the emperor(s) will have no clothes, as most of the sales contracts are naked.

What is gold used for?

At what price will most consumers stop buying gold?