Buy gold: the original and best bitcoin

Bitcoin may be the flavour of the month, says Max King. But gold has been in fashion for thousands of years.

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An investment strategy for the real pessimists
(Image credit: Dave Nagel)

The speculative mania for bitcoin in 2017 shows the enduring desire for a currency that is outside the control of governments. The inflation of past decades may have abated, but the regulation of bank accounts is greater than ever. Whether bitcoin fulfils the functions of a currency remains to be seen, but gold has been preserving purchasing power for thousands of years. Moreover, it provides the physical reassurance of ownership that cryptocurrencies cannot.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.