Any Alternative for UGLD, cause Merrill Edge is blocking it

[Aati]

Hi All,

Merrill Edge is not allowing me to buy UGLD.  Can you help and suggest some alternative, should I buy more GLD??
Listed below are the strategies and allocations I am currently invested in.
1. Bond Rotation (20%)
2. Global Market Rotation (20%)
3. 3XLevUniv <span class=”il”>Invest </span>(20%)
4. Nasdaq 100 Top 4 (20%)
5. Gold Currency (20%)

I use Merrill Edge primarily because of convenience and no transaction fees.

[StefanM]

Hi everyone,

I am also finding that UGLD is not available from my UK pension manager as they say that the product is not MIFID II compliant. This is also true for TMF (and probably ZIV).

Would a normal Gold ETF be sufficient?

[Alex @ Logical Invest]

We´re aware that different brokers and pension plan sponsors have some limitations, the problem is that these are not uniform and it´s a little boy-scout exercise to find out which broker or sponsor allows which instruments. For example some strictly do not allow any leveraged or inverse ETF, some just restrict MLP/commodity pools.

So we need your support in screening alternatives, looking for similar track record (adjusted to leverage) and reasonable liquidity and expense ratios, then check with your broker/pension plan sponsor.

The sites are best for US investors:
http://www.etf.com/etfanalytics/etf-finder?segment=sg_Leveraged+Commodities:+Precious+Metals+Gold
http://etfdb.com/screener/#page=1&asset_class=commodity&commodity_types=Gold&leveraged=2x&inverse=false

For EU investors and MIFID II compliant funds please use:
http://tools.morningstar.co.uk/uk/etfscreener/default.aspx
http://www.morningstar.de/de/etfs/

A quick look at a 5yrs chart shows you how well the alternatives track the ETF, example: https://yhoo.it/2nNfjPn

Again, we´re looking into it also with support of EPG, but we appreciate your support.

For UGLD you can indeed use GLD, but then need to buy three times the suggested allocation. Either using a margin account, or if not possible reducing all other positions so they total 100%. See here for the math: https://logical-invest.com/forums/topic/gold-currency-strategy/#post-45287

[Aati]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your reply and the links.

Found out that Merrill Edge allows UGL but blocks DGP and UGLD.

Couple of questions:
So in my strategies it’s okay to use UGL wherever UGLD is used?
The expense ratio of UGL at 3.55% is high compared to DGP at .75% and UGLD 1.35%. is that any cause for concern?

Thanks,
Aati

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