Physical gold bars, paper gold or gold jewellery? Investors share their preferences

The global financial crisis in 2008 left a deep imprint on finance executive Gregor Gregersen and kick-started his interest in gold.

- Chor Khieng Yuit

Mr Gregersen was working with a bank in Frankfurt at the time and had a front-row view of the trading room.

What he saw in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy made him realize that the financial system was not as stable as he had thought.

He also noticed "quite a number of people buying physical gold and silver".

"I went out and tried to buy some. It was very hard to get, and they were willing to pay a lot of money for the gold and silver," he said.

That experience convinced him that having some physical gold makes a lot of sense when a crisis erupts.

Mr Gregersen, who invests in gold and silver for his own portfolio, founded Silver Bullion in April 2009 and opened The Reserve here, one of the biggest storage facilities for precious metals in the world, in 2024.

Like Mr Gregersen, Mr Alvin Chow, assistant director of investment advisory at iFast Global Markets, invests in physical gold because he views it as a "doomsday asset".

Mr Chow said his gold investments are his insurance against world turmoil, noting that "in times of war or extreme global crises, other assets can lose their value rapidly".

"Properties become difficult to monetize, currencies weaken, and even stocks and bonds may be illiquid, or not easily converted into cash, if markets are closed.

Physical gold, however, remains a reliable store of wealth," he said.