Average for stack causing mental buying block

[Rich99]

Anyone else keep track of their average and are having it cause a mental buying block?

I have a few kg in the stack and an average of £17.56 per troy ounce. I got so much of it around the £16 per ounce mark and now the average is creeping up it feels like I am over spending, which is illogical!

Would be interested to know the averages of others stacks

Richard

[Kman]

To go from spending £180 on a bullion sovereign to £240 certainly is tough to accept 

People like Mike Maloney always say you should just count the oz's you have, not worry about the price because it's only small swings atm and there will be a massive one eventually

But he is a bullion dealer so 

[HighlandTiger]

My silver stack average is around £11.40

[Pipers]

Maloney is just a pumper. 

HT is that including from when you started?  

[Paul]

26 minutes ago, Rich99 said:

Anyone else keep track of their average and are having it cause a mental buying block?

I have a few kg in the stack and an average of £17.56 per troy ounce. I got so much of it around the £16 per ounce mark and now the average is creeping up it feels like I am over spending, which is illogical!

Would be interested to know the averages of others stacks

Richard

Silver is on sale !! its around 50-70% off  !!

Dollar cost average, buy the same amount on the basis and you'll reap the lows and get less on the highs

You are being well and truly spoilt at current prices

[Agpanda]

My average is just over 70£/oz at the moment

[rebelsilver]

I have only been stacking since September but I remember buying a 1 Kilo 2015 Kook in November for £382 from STG. 

 

 

How times have changes - I cant bear to buy anything atm

 

 

[Kman]

 

9 minutes ago, Paul said:

Silver is on sale !! its more than over 60% off  !!

You are being well and truly spoilt 

 

 

At least some of those are worth beyond their silver, Panda and Elephants (I assume the Elephants anyway) 

Maple leafs not soo hot 

[Danny-boy]

I'm at £11.82 average (all 999 coins & a few bars).

I have kilo coins bought at £375 delivered!!!

Finding it hard to buy lately!!

[rebelsilver]

I suppose that if you stack you are of the opinion that the metal is the true measure of value - so the £ is immaterial. 

Before I bought physical I had six months or so practice on bullion vault, so I had an idea of the fluctuations and what sort of downward movement was worth buying at. 

[KDave]

I have a metals buying block too, its brexits fault.

£808.70 average on gold. Highest price paid - £943 an ounce (Queens Beast coin invest). Lowest price paid - £731 an ounce (RM Lunar Goat Bairds&co)

£12.93 average on silver. Highest price paid - £13.16 an ounce (1 Kilo Bar from Arshi). Lowest price paid - £12.43 an ounce (2 Oz Turtle STG). 

Fingers crossed my average will continue to rise as I buy into the bull market... Knowing my luck I will be averaging down from here in 12 months 

[Scuzzle]

My average is £13.80 but have a lot of Pandas, Kook's etc in with that so it's not all that bad.  Current prices have put me off bullion buying at the moment so I've switched to just buying MS70 slabbed stuff at the moment at £45 - £55 a go since I don't count collectable stuff in my cost average for bullion, it's a bit easier for my brain to accept paying a bit more and telling myself I will still see gains in a few years time.

[vand]

If you care greatly about your average cost/oz then you are still playing the fiat game.

I admit that even I find it harder to buy after a price rise, but it is better to think of it as your wages having lost purchasing power, not the price of the metal rising.

Buy a little amount a month. some months you will be able to afford slightly more, some months slightly less, but over time you will accumulate a fair reflection of the economic resources that you have underconsumed and chosen to save. And, for a fact, the more you do it - the more ozs you accumulate, the less a single batch will have on your overall average cost/oz.

[ikeonet1]

it is a bit difficult to accept the higher price range, but if this uptrend is real and you've been buying the entire time then you are sitting comfortable. Overall, if the prices come back down its time to do a little heavier buying or buying just enough now to dollar cost average on the way up. Trying to catch a ride on the way up is better than the way down. The question really boils down to whether or not the rally is sustainable. If it is not, then your cost avg. is up but the overall value of the stack still keeps moving up. Part of the problem was the devaluation of your currency in which case if you think that's going to get better then there's strength in the currency. If not, consistently purchasing is not exactly a bad thing. 

Personally I thought I would not keep buying but now that we're here, I don't think its that bad. If it goes down then buy a bit more and avg. I've been buying and selling consistently on the way up and down so my cost avg. was $11/oz usd but has since moved up to $14/oz after adding 300+ oz @ spot or near spot.. If you think its not going anywhere, then saving is the best thing to do. If you think spot will go down, then don't buy and buy if you think it will go up. If you're in it for a year or two it could go either way at the moment so its hard to tell ya which way to go, but according to my spreadsheet I have some room so I continue to buy a little bit based on my cost / oz. The closer my avg gets to spot or the lowest low I think it'll get then I'll slow down, which is not too far. I do think there will be a dip, which we have yet to see. 

[StinkyLebinowitz]

I look at my cost per oz of the whole pile every now and again, just for giggles and grins. From years in business I know that stat is pretty much worthless. It can be manipulated too easily by adding in pieces on one end of the spectrum to yank the whole pile up or down to suit one's pleasure. The only time the cost per oz. of my whole pile becomes a viable statistic is after the SHTF and everything becomes "just bullion".

What I do do is open my spreadsheet and sort by "model" so I am grouping like purchases together and then view those prices. Being relatively new at this my experience of the spectrum of spot prices is from $15.95 up to the most current highs. With that in mind, most of my purchases of Noah's Ark and Philharmonics were done at prices far lower than today. I coulld use to add more, but my averages for those does cause a mental block to that. Conversely though, now that spot is in the $20 range, the premium on ASEs seems to be more acceptable.Back when I started, that premium was closing on 20%. Now it's closer on 14% which I find easier to swallow.     

[HighlandTiger]

13 hours ago, Pipers said:

Maloney is just a pumper. 

HT is that including from when you started?  

This is my sterling figure. I still have a few coins to shift, which are in a separate stack of about 100 ounces. Mainly proofs, this stack is at £23 an ounce. However I'm slowly selling these at break even, (slight profit here, slight loss there etc). I'm hoping by the end of the year I'm 100% sterling.

Danny has done very well with his .999 buys. but I assume that most was bought when silver was very low and his stack is made up of very very large lumps of silver. But neither myself nor Danny will be lowering our stack average cost with todays prices, and any more silver bought now will increase the average cost. 

[HighlandTiger]

13 hours ago, Paul said:

Silver is on sale !! its around 50-70% off  !!

Dollar cost average, buy the same amount on the basis and you'll reap the lows and get less on the highs

You are being well and truly spoilt at current prices

1990 Kook........ OUCH!

[SilverPirate]

Would love to see some pictures of your sterling stack HT, sounds a good idea to me.Easy recognisable and sellable.

[vand]

For those who can't bring themselves to buy at £15/oz, what are you all going to do when the purchasing power of Her Royal Majesty's toilet paper falls to £20/oz? Then £30/oz? how about £100/oz?

As history has shown, ALL fiat currencies eventually reach their intrinsic value, ie, zero, this is not just conjecture, this is a mathematical certainty.

Will it happen in our lifetime? Well put it this way, I remember a cinema ticket still costing under 2 bucks and a 1 day travelcard under 3 bucks (adult price)... not even all that long ago. So on evidence of the lat 40 years I think the chances are that that cinema ticket and travelcard will be  £40-50 not too long from now.

[vand]

10 hours ago, ikeonet1 said:

Personally I thought I would not keep buying but now that we're here, I don't think its that bad. If it goes down then buy a bit more and avg. I've been buying and selling consistently on the way up and down so my cost avg. was $11/oz usd but has since moved up to $14/oz after adding 300+ oz @ spot or near spot.. If you think its not going anywhere, then saving is the best thing to do. If you think spot will go down, then don't buy and buy if you think it will go up. If you're in it for a year or two it could go either way at the moment so its hard to tell ya which way to go, but according to my spreadsheet I have some room so I continue to buy a little bit based on my cost / oz. The closer my avg gets to spot or the lowest low I think it'll get then I'll slow down, which is not too far. I do think there will be a dip, which we have yet to see. 

 

The main point of dollar cost averaging is that it is entirely mechanical - you don't allow your judgement of where the market is heading to influence your buying, you simply buy a fixed dollar amount to take advantage of price fluctuation to reduce the average cost of your holding compared to if the price had stayed flat(ter)... price volatility becomes your friend.

Part of the whole problem with "I can't bring myself to buy at £15" is because of ego, even though you may not realise it. Prices are higher, and you didn't buy more while they were cheaper, therefore your ego is hurt. Ego has no place in sensible investing. So you may think that prices are heading lower and so are tempted to wait - but you can't be certain of that. cost averaging is ego-free investing - it instills discipline and teaches the investor that what the market actually does it what is important, not what they think it will or should do.

 

FWIW, my own strategy is that I tend to buy 1-2 batches per month, one of a strict pound-cost-average basis, and another on a discretionary basis. 

 

[Paul]

1 hour ago, HighlandTiger said:

1990 Kook........ OUCH!

Yeah - tell me about it - think that is my highest price paid per oz in my stack, hindsight is a great thing

Those were the days where i did everything wrong,

1. buying through eBay

2. getting into bidding wars to 'win it'

3.  actively chasing coins to complete date runs

4.  falling in love with different cuddly animal embellished adornments

5. buying at highs

6. believing silvers next stop was £50oz and far beyond

7. listening & believing youtube pumpers & experts

Anyone want to buy it for £55, ??  i'll take a 71p loss  its got the original mint issue capsule to

[rob121]

I'm on £13.07 average but looking to shift some of my more premium pieces in the near future. I cant justify buying silver at current prices.

[jayboat]

Currently sitting at £15.52. 

Just home from work and have got one of those red cards from the postman, guess i need to wait until tomarrow for my silver. Got 10 oz on ebay for £178 and had a £15 off voucher, so £16.30 an oz. Got some 2013 brit's and koala's, the rest is like libertad's and , all 2016 i think. I have not added it in yet as i have not added to my stack yet. 

Happy with where my avg is sitting, been stacking for 2 1/2 years and bought a lot of ebay in the beginning. Timed the bottom pretty much perfectly, got my biggest ever order in last December when is was £9.20ish an oz. It was more down to luck compared with timing  I still plan to stack, business as normal. I will of course notice a difference in the amount i can buy but i can still buy some and im happy with that. Stacking silver is savings for me so it does'nt matter about the price that much. Silver at any price is better than money in the bank. 

[Pipers]

8 hours ago, jayboat said:

Currently sitting at £15.52. 

Just home from work and have got one of those red cards from the postman, guess i need to wait until tomarrow for my silver. Got 10 oz on ebay for £178 and had a £15 off voucher, so £16.30 an oz. Got some 2013 brit's and koala's, the rest is like libertad's and , all 2016 i think. I have not added it in yet as i have not added to my stack yet. 

Happy with where my avg is sitting, been stacking for 2 1/2 years and bought a lot of ebay in the beginning. Timed the bottom pretty much perfectly, got my biggest ever order in last December when is was £9.20ish an oz. It was more down to luck compared with timing  I still plan to stack, business as normal. I will of course notice a difference in the amount i can buy but i can still buy some and im happy with that. Stacking silver is savings for me so it does'nt matter about the price that much. Silver at any price is better than money in the bank. 

I hope you are counting all in costs!  That is postage etc 

[Rich99]

I also go metal detecting. Have decided to buy a few pieces with the spoils of that and then they can go on my stack total as £0.00...and bring the average down.

I suppose you could also do the same with birthday cash, any extra "free" money really.

It's so crazy it just might work.