the australian gold fund story

Brian is passionate about life and seeks to succeed in whatever he pursues.

Having spent over two decades in the higher education industry teaching actuarial studies, statistics, finance, accounting, economics and risk management, Brian has an in-depth understanding of the theoretical foundations of the financial markets and how to analyse a wide range of data.

While he taught and engaged in academic research, he invested his savings into the financial markets, applying his knowledge and research to help him with his trades. For a number of years, he would make some gains but gave a lot of it back.

His fortunes would changed in April 2013.

A primary school friend opened his mind to the world of central banking over a lunch on Sunday after church. Brian realised how large financial institutions acted in their own interest at the expense of the general population.

From that point on, he delved deeper down this rabbit hole. He learnt from the likes of Mike Maloney to Tekoa da Silva, then to Peter Schiff, Rick Rule and Eric Sprott, reading their literature and digesting their interviews and talks until he could understand the dynamics of the gold mining industry.

As the gold bear market mauled many investors who ventured in this industry, he made his entry and prevailed, even as his losses mounted. He built his positions when many would have capitulated.

With the coming of the 2015-2016 gold bull market, not only did he recoup his past losses, his gains meant he had enough funds to pursue investing as more than just a side hobby.

Since early 2017, he built his own database to record operational, financial and metallurgic information of various ASX-listed gold mining companies. Having gained an intuition from his past few years of success, he tested this with the data and wrote some research reports on his findings on Hotcopper in 2018.

Receiving much positive feedback, he commenced writing his valuation and SWOT analysis reports for selected gold mining companies and regularly posted them online via social media and stock discussion forums.

As he gains momentum on this path, he has decided to establish his own fund, the Australian Gold Fund, putting his strategy and research skill to the test under public scrutiny.

As of April 2021, Brian became the precious metals editor at Fat Tail Investment Research, Australia's leading independent publisher of financial and investment solutions. Fat Tail Investment Research is the Australian affiliate of the internationally well-renowned, The Agora, which was founded by Bill Bonner.

The hard work has paid off but the journey continues.

I invite you to come on board!

our team

Brian W.B. Chu

Brian is the Founding Director of The Australian Gold Fund, which he established in July 2019 with his family's wealth.

His background is in academia where he taught actuarial studies, corporate finance, statistics, accounting, risk management and economics. He also has experience in research relating to executive remuneration, asset valua

Brian is the Founding Director of The Australian Gold Fund, which he established in July 2019 with his family's wealth.

Since focusing on precious metals investing, Brian has dedicated much of his time refining his approach to deliver better investment outcomes.

To date, The Australian Gold Fund has delivered many years of superior returns compared to its benchmark indices, including international indices. He has also outperformed leading precious metals investors and funds since 2015.

In April 2021, Brian partnered with Australia's leading independent financial publishing house, Fat Tail Investment Research, to write the precious metals investment newsletters to their paid subscribers.

In 2024, Brian, Trung and Jimmy Wong developed GoldHub Australia, a platform that offers precious metals investors access to the data and unique market metrics developed and used by the Australian Gold Fund.

Outside of precious metals investing, Brian is a dedicated Christian father, husband and continues to teach finance and consumer mathematics in universities and schools.

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Trung Thai

Brian W.B. Chu

Trung joined the Australian Gold Fund team in late-2021 as a Research Analyst while he was still studying. He is now responsible for managing the team's database and conducting research on the macroeconomy, the commodities markets and valuation techniques. In 2024, Trung and Brian formed a joint venture with Jimmy to create GoldHub Austra

Over time, Trung developed several financial models, contributing extensively to developing new angles to analysing the precious metals market. This ranges from evaluating the broad economy and how macroeconomic factors can affect investor sentiment to identifying factors that drive the price performance of individual gold companies.

Trung continues to investigate different projection techniques based on economic trends, recent price movements and the company’s fundamentals to enhance the research capabilities of The Australian Gold Fund.

Outside of his work with The Australian Gold Fund, Trung is a general partner at FGG Investment - a Vietnam-based cryptocurrency fund with a proven record of profitability and is developing GoldHub Australia to become an exciting platform offering serious precious metals investors access to our proprietary data and metrics.

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Ved Shah

Brian W.B. Chu

Ved Shah

Ved joined The Australian Gold Fund in 2024 as a Finance Analyst, where he contributes to the firm’s mission of delivering informed, data-driven investment strategies in the precious metals market. He is also involved in GoldHub Australia to build the database and identify new perspectives to analyse the gold mining companies.

A recent fin

A recent finance graduate from SP Jain School of Global Management, Ved brings a unique blend of financial acumen and auditing experience to the team.

Before joining, he worked in internal auditing, which refined his attention to detail and analytical rigor. He currently supports the management of key databases under the guidance of Trung and Brian, and assists in research initiatives focused on optimising trade timing and maximising returns for clients.

Ved is currently pursuing the CPA Australia designation to further deepen his technical knowledge in accounting and finance. He is known for his drive, collaborative spirit, and unwavering commitment to adding value—qualities that make him a dependable contributor in any professional setting.

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Our Expertise and Skills

Invest in Precious Metals and Mining Companies

Our fund purchases precious metals mining companies, predominantly on the ASX with a focus on producers and late-stage developers. We also purchase units in exchange-traded funds exposed to gold, silver and platinum group metals (PGM). The fund may sometimes hold, where appropriate, physical bullion and coins.

We have identified a potential to create a niche in the ASX-listed gold mining companies space. Most gold mining investment funds that are active have holdings of companies listed outside of the ASX and hence are subject to currency differentials and legislative differences. Our fund seeks to offer a unique exposure to ASX-listed gold mining companies, which nevertheless have mining operations overseas. However, focusing on the ASX keeps the fund more manageable and can exploit the advantages inherent in the ASX, which is still not being given the attention it deserves. Companies trading on the ASX may be trading at a discount compared to their peers listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange. Furthermore, the weakness of the Australian dollar has made the gold price in our local currency more attractive than the gold price in US dollar terms, allowing gold mining companies with operations denominated in Australian dollars to enjoy better returns.

Mining Company Research

We build our own mining company database and access supplementary information to inform our investment decisions. We employ fundamental analysis and advanced statistical techniques to help us with our research and portfolio decisions.

We believe what distinguishes us from other precious metals investors is that we develop unique valuation metrics that you will not find anywhere else. Most investment houses use discounted-cash flow models and earnings multiples to value mining companies. We prefer to value producers using an Enterprise Value to Production multiple, adjusting for the cost and sale price per unit of gold produced/sold.

We develop our own price indices and sentiment indicators to enhance our strategy and performance outcome.

General Economic Analysis

We offer a contrarian, evidence-based perspective to evaluating the state of the global and local economy. Inspired by the likes of Nassim Taleb, Peter Schiff, Doug Casey and Eric Sprott, we seek to test the veracity of official statistics and narratives.

We are able to investigate the raw data ourselves, observe market activity in the streets and shopping malls, and challenge popular opinion.

Adopting sound statistical methods and commonsense, we will readily challenge consensus viewpoints and take a minority position if it holds merit.

We will walk the road less taken, as we believe that to beat the crowd, one cannot be a follower.