Gyroscopic Investing

Is it important to try to time things a bit until the bid/ask spread is low?  I've seen it vary recently from 0.1 to 0.01.  Should I try to time my purchase for when it's at 0.01?

IMO, it doesn't matter. The PP has you trading so infrequently I don't think it's worth worrying about the micro-timing of individual trades.

I agree with KevinW. For an investor who holds shares for a relatively long time, there's very little point in timing the market when buying or selling those shares. The effect of slight price and bid-ask spread variations on a given share purchase dissolves away into nothing as the shares are held over time.

If you still really want to time your IAU share purchases, though, time them based on whatever causes the larger variation in share price: if gold's spot price varies more than IAU's bid-ask spread, time your purchases based on the spot price. And if IAU's bid-ask spread varies more than gold's spot price, time your purchases based on the bid-ask spread. I think the former is usually the case.

I third KevinW.

IAU is what I use for gold when I want low cost in and out.

My twist on trading is to watch the premium for GTU and trade between IAU and GTU to take advantage of the shifting premium.  OK, I haven't done this for over a year now.  I only do it when I have too much time to watch the markets...

And the last several times I've done this I actually used CEF with IAU and SLV because I like the additional volatility provided by the silver.