Ideas in this flowchart

• Gold ETPs provide exposure to the gold price without personal ownership of physical gold.
• An investor can choose between owning gold personally and tracking its price through a finance-industry product.
• Gold ETPs rise and fall with the gold price because they are backed by bullion held in a bank vault.
• These products are broadly called exchange-traded products or exchange-traded commodities.
• Investors buy and sell gold ETP shares through a stockbroker.
• Gold-backed products can use different ownership structures.
• Some ETCs are created as debt linked to physical gold.
• Other trust funds own the gold, while investors own shares in the ETF.
• Regardless of the structure, investors do not actually own any metal through a gold-backed ETP.
• Investors are charged for the safekeeping of the underlying gold.