Thailand : Gold trading, buying and selling
Standard retail display of mostly ornamental Thai gold, bracelets, rings, etc.
Gold retail shops are abundant in Bangkok, and most Thai cities. It is worth knowing that Thai gold has a purity of 'just' 96.5 %, compared with 23 karat Gold which has a purity somewhat less of 95.8%. Certainly, most of the jewelry in gold shops have the Thai standard. Nevertheless, it is possible to buy purer gold for little bars, though not in all retail outlets, or you may have to ask for it in advance. Most gold shops have quite a large staff, often busy with rearrangement, counting the gold items. There usually is one guard at the premised, though they also may function as the person who opens and closes the door for the customers. Overall, there seems to buy little concern about the value of the items for sale, though of course, with some much staff around, some will be just there to keep an eye on the customers.
It is not uncommon to see customers looking around, having jewelry displayed in front of them, and taking their time to check things out, without necessarily buying on short notice. There is no bargaining on the price though. Actually the buying and selling price for gold is usually on display on the window, or prominently behind the counter. The margin between the buying and selling price is rather small, and there is not value-added tax to be paid when buying gold (no VAT). For example, buying price may be 25,000 baht for a 1 gold baht small bar, and 24,900 when you sell the same item. The margin between buyhing and selling price seems to by fixed at 100 Thai baht, which in 2022 amounted to a difference of about 0.35%. Now the price is higher for ornamental gold, usually about 1,000 baht extra, and we do not think you get that money back when selling the item back to the gold shop. Of course, if you buy purer gold items, you will have to pay a higher price.
The price of gold is standardized by the Gold Traders Association and is adjusted 2, 3 or more times during the day. Of course, the price is adjusted more frequently, when the gold spot price changes a lot on the international market. In Bangkok alone, the Gold Traders Association has 464 members (shops) listed !
Liang Seng Heng shop, a retail gold shop, is located on main Sukhumvit road, corner with Soi 10.
1 Thai Baht gold has a weight of 15.2441 grams, while 1 Troy Ounce of Gold, weights 31.10348 gram. So 2 Thai Baht gold comes close to 1 Troy Ounce of gold, but not quite. Trying to take Thai Gold out of the country and selling it in another country may not be quite easy, because both the unusual weight, and the purity difference of the gold. Our advice : you can buy in Thailand, and you have to sell there (if you want to sell).
If you buy gold as an investment, or as an insurance against various economic calamities, likely you want to buy very small, or somewhat small gold bars. They come in various denominations, like 1 baht, 1/2 baht, 1/4 baht, and various even smaller sizes in grams. For the baht denominated bars, there are 2 types. One type is very plain gold, and quoted like the prices mentioned above. If you want a better looking piece of gold, with a logo, and the printing of an animal or so on the back side, you have to pay a bit more, usually 150 baht. When you sell to the gold shop, of course, they will not reimburse you for that amount. So effectively, the difference between a buying and selling price for this type of 'beautiful' (it seems to just be called that way in Thai language) gold is actually 250 baht (supposing the purchase and sale of the item occurs at the same time).
Where to buy gold. As said before there are many gold shops around Bangkok. It is best to familiarize yourself with what each gold shop has to offer. There are some big gold trading enterprises in Thailand, and some are listed on the Thai Stock market, offering also Gold Futures for sale, and offering online sales of gold. If you prefer to trade with such a company (more reputable ?, larger company ?) these are some examples : MTS Gold, Hua Seng Heng , YLG bullion , Ausiris Gold. This list is not exhaustive. The companies listed have also an English-language version of their site. When you seen an item online that suits you, we suggest you take the image with you when visited the shop, to make it easier to express your wishes. Most sites sell also gold online, though it may be a bit difficult to open an account because of the variety of documents required. But you may give it a try!
As an image above shows, there is a shop called Liang Seng Heng on the corner of Soi 10 and Sukhumvit road. When we visited one day, there was an elderly person behind the counter that spoke quite good English (poor English language skills may be a problem in some retail shops). An interesting area to visit is close to the Siam Yot MRT station, which is housed in a pleasant looking old building. From the station you can proceed to Old Siam Square, basically a covered marketplace. On the outside walkway around the 'old' shopping center, there are many gold shops. Some shops has clear glass windows all around, allowing you to see inside. Other shops (we do not prefer) have covered or darkened windows, apparently to give some privacy to customers. Walking from the MRT station to Old Siam Plaza, you will pass many, many gun shops. I do not think you can just walk in there, and there seems to be some 'characters' around to guard the shops. But overall, the area around the MRT station, and Old Siam Plaza, is very clean, quite different from what you see for example on main Sukhumvit road. The roads are also wider, and there somehow seems to be more open space around. We think Old Siam Plaze is on the periphery of Chinatown, which you can better visit from Wat Mongkon MRT station. In Chinatown, there are many gold shops, certainly worth exploring, but we did not.
Buying Gold Online - (Using foreign Currency Account)
Quite a few gold traders have an online presence, certainly the companies listed 2 paragraphs ago. You can register for an online account. However, it appears quite a number of documents are required to do so. Besides copies of bank book and passport, you may also need copies of 'tabian baan' and likely also of a workpermit. So this way of trading is not suitable for all foreigners residing in Thailand. It would also suggest that retirees (who are not allowed to work) are also not allowed to open an online account for gold trading. When opening an account (which we did not do), one should also find out in advance if gold bought this way can be delivered physically, or remains only on your account, where you can keep it or sell it.
We understand that from 2019 onwards, the Bank of Thailand, has plans for using foreign currency accounts in trading. Up to now, there are a lot of restrictions on foreign currency accounts. It is quite difficult to open such accounts (if you go asking around for it, most banks will simply refuse to open such accounts). Opening a foreign currency account, also involves a lot of paper work. You may need for example a 'Certificate of Identity Document', which can be obtained from your embassy (if your are so lucky), and actually confirms that you are the person who presents with your passport (?). In any case, Bangkok Bank seems to be most able to provide you with a Foreign Currency account.
This long introduction, to tell you it is possible to trade gold online, and paying with U.S. Dollar on a foreign currency account. We think many banks now are trying to set this up, but Bangkok Bank has done it with Hua Seng Heng company (reputedly) the oldest gold trader in Thailand. See screenshot below.
With an associated U.S. Dollar account, you can purchase or sell at (approximate) spot price online on Hua Seng Heng website
Interestingly, it is quite easy to do so. You register online with Hua Seng Heng
.They then will have you download a few documents that you can take to Bangkok Bank. This to allow access to the Foreign Currency account for U.S. Dollar you have with that bank. You sign a few papers, live them with the bank, that will contact Hua Seng Heng. We managed to set up an account and being allowed to trade within 36 hours, which we found most amazing.
It is worth noting, that it is clearly stated that you can not have physical gold delivered after buying gold online this way. As seen in the picture above, Hua Seng Heng provides you with live (or very close to live?) updates of the spot gold price. There seems to be a margin of about 80 U.S. cents between the buying and selling price, and the gold trading company takes its cut from that margin (gold spot charts usually show margins of just about 5 U.S. cents). If you plan on trading this way, we suggest you look at more elaborate trading platforms. Tradingviews.com provides the charting for Hua Seng Heng, but the same company allows for more extensive charting for free or at reasonable prices. Tradingviews.com covers the Thai stock market live as well, and once you discover what the software can do, it allows quite good 'automatic' technical trading advice.
Bangkok Bank itself will take 50 U.S. cents from your account, each time you buy gold online. There is no charge for putting money back into the account, when selling gold
Buying and selling gold may look like good fun, and when using this kind of set-up, it almost looks like a game, so restrain yourself ! When you buy gold online this way, it does not quite feel like you are the owner of it. It is a way of gaining or losing fiat money, but if you want to assurance owning gold can give, you surely need to obtain the physical kind.
Add-on : Anonymity ?
When buying gold (and silver) the standard procedure seems to be that a copy is made of your passport. So a record is kept that you have bought (or sold ?) gold. It is not entirely impossible that during times of crisis, gold is bought or confiscation by the government. If we recall accurately, this happened during the depression of the 30's in the USA. After the 1997 economic crisis in South-East Asia, the Thai government also asked for gold 'donations' by the public, but no outright confiscation took place. For this reason, it would be advisable for gold buyers not to be registered. In any case, we did not search for it, but simply were not asked any questions of identification by one gold shop, that we maybe mentioned already on this page. Of course, you take a small risk when not being registered (is the gold you bought real ?).