Has Bob Brinker Ever Recommended Buying Gold?

Nope, Bob Brinker has never recommended buying gold. But he sure would like you to think he has. If he had recommended gold ten years ago, he'd look like a genius now instead of a market-timer who missed the worst bear market of our lifetime. Instead, he wants you to think he recommended gold when it was 50% lower. Here's the truth you didn't get from Bob Brinker last Sunday:

For at least two decades before gold began a relentless climb in 2007, Bob Brinker would tell callers that owning gold was "dead money." A number of times before 2007, Bob Brinker told the Moneytalk audience that anyone who had invested in gold in the last 20 years was underwater.

He would regularly tell callers that he did not own gold and had never recommended buying it, but IF someone was determined to own a "small amount as a hedge,” then he recommended using the gold ETF as a purchasing vehicle. [GLD]

So it wasn't buying gold that was his recommendation, it was using GLD to purchase it, IF you were determined to do it. See the difference? I'm sure Mr. Brinker does too, but seems willing to slickly overlook it. (What is that old saying about people rob banks because that's where the money is? That might apply to Brinker's willingness to taking credit even when it's not due -- that's where the money is.)

This Sunday, for the second time, Brinker mislead his audience into thinking that he had recommended gold back when it was 50% lower. Notice the CAREFULLY chosen words that Brinker used on Sunday:

Brinker said: "I've said many times that if someone wants to have a small percentage of a portfolio in a gold hedge -- and I like GLD, the Exchange-traded-fund ..... GLD is the favored recommendation. I remember when I first mentioned GLD on the program in connection with a recommendation as a hedge, it was about $50 a share and now it is well over $100."

The first time Brinker mislead the audience about his gold recommendations was on November 17, 2007 [LINK]:

Bob Brinker said: “Now a long time ago, when these shares were trading in the low to mid-$50s, I gave that recommendation on this program. That for listeners who desire to have a hedge in the gold market that I thought the security to use was the shares that trade under the ticker symbol GLD. Those are the Exchange Traded Fund Gold Shares. And at the time I first gave that recommendation to listeners that were looking for a hedge in gold, those shares were trading in the low to mid-$50s. They are currently trading at $77.75. So obviously, anybody that chose to put on a hedge in the gold market has done very well.”

David Korn wrote the following comments (in 2007) about what Brinker said in the paragraph above:

"Caller: This caller owns some gold and wanted Bob's opinion on whether to continue holding it or sell. ....As far as whether to stay with gold, Bob said if investors want to own it as a hedge, that is fine. In fact, Bob said he just checked the numbers and Bob said since he has been recommending gold as a hedge for those who want it as a hedge, it is up about 40% and so it has done very well. Bob said if you want to own it as a hedge against inflation or whatever, you can do that, but Bob said he doesn't own it and doesn't see inflation. Bob said he has not missed out being in gold because he has been invested in the stock market and it is up over 100% in the last few years.......[Honey EC: This was in November 2007 when the stock market was at an ALL-TIME-HIGH. It subsequently lost 57% in the next couple of years while gold continued to rise.]

........This is a new one for Bob -- taking credit for making a recommendation on something he doesn't own and wouldn't own and said specifically he would not make a recommendation to own.Bob has been steadfastly BEARISH on gold for as long as I have been doing my newsletter."__David Korn

David Korn has been writing summaries of Bob Brinker's Moneytalk for over 11 years, so if he says Brinker has always been bearish on gold, BRINKER HAS ALWAYS BEEN BEARISH ON GOLD! You can get a free issue of David Korn's weekly newsletter at this [LINK

Evidently, Bob Brinker is no longer bearish on gold because he added GLD to his list of "individual issues" in the May, 2009 issue of Marketimer. However, he has never recommended it as a buy. It was listed as a HOLD from the beginning, and he has never explained why he added it to this list or how much he recommends holding -- or at what price to buy it.



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As you can see from the May and June 2009 Marketimer excerpts above, Brinker actually issued a "buy" and "buy on weakness" on SU when he added it to the list at the same time he added GLD. He also recommended "purchase on weakness" for SPY, VTI, IWV and DIA, but there was never any buy recommendation for GLD. It was simply added to the list with no comment then or ever!

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