Do President Obama or Mitt Romney Own Gold?

Its about that time of year when people begin to dive into the disclosures and holdings of the two candidates who have thrown their hat into the presidential ring. For a bit of fun, we thought we would take a glance at the disclosures of these presidential hopefuls to see where they are allocating, and what parts of the economy they feel are most lucrative. And after combing through some of the filings and holdings, we discovered that one of the candidates is actually an owner of a fair amount of everyone’s favorite commodity; gold [for more gold news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].

Plain and Simple: Barack Obama

Looking at Obama’s holdings reveal nothing of great interest, as he owns most of the securities and assets that you would expect out of someone in his position. The President has a fair amount invested in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX), a mutual fund that tracks the S&P 500 (apparently he didn’t get the memo that the near-identical ETF, VOO, charges a full 12 basis points less than its mutual fund counterpart). That allocation falls somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 (disclosures are only required to give vague ranges), but the majority of his portfolio lies in debt.

The President has over $1 million in U.S. Treasuries, dwarfing his equity exposure and other investments. With paltry returns and less-than-reliable debt situation in the U.S. it certainly seems like Obama has a bit of extra risk with this allocation. That being said, Obama’s portfolio features no commodity exposure, a diversification nightmare.

Mitt Romney Shakes it Up

Romney, on the other hand, spreads his portfolio across a number of popular mutual funds, ETFs, and individual stocks. But the allocation that caught our eye is the $250,000 to $500,000 that the former Massachusetts Governor has invested in gold (again, the vague ranges are less than ideal). Though the allocation is relatively small compared to Romney’s overall asset base, it is certainly worth noting that he believes firmly in this precious metal, as it appears to be his only form of commodity exposure.

This allocation may or may not mean anything should Romney be elected, as he has already stated that he will enter into a federal blind trust, but for those of you looking for another gold bug to follow, you may just be calling him Mr. President come 2013.

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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.

This entry was posted in Asset Allocation, Fun, Gold, Precious Metals and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Commodity HQ is not an investment advisor, and any content published by Commodity HQ does not constitute individual investment advice. The opinions offered herein are not personalized recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities or investment assets. Read the full disclaimer here.

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