Nagorak, maybe because I don't have time to research individual stocks. And I don't want to be significantly overweight in any sector. Having indirect exposure has been far less stressful for me. A few years ago, I was significantly overweight gold and oil. The volatility was driving me crazy even though I was making alot of money and killing the markets. And when gold and oil got bombed and the markets went up, I significantly lagged behind which was no fun at all. The way I'm playing it now, has worked out far better than I expected. I find that on days where gold and oil get bombed, I still make money even if I'm lagging. And incidentally, I am still up this year.

I've already mentioned this a couple of times in the past for gold. I don't have any direct gold exposure. Yet my portfolio still benefits when gold goes up. Like it did today.  My indirect gold exposure include PRPFX which has about 25% in PMs. PSAFX which has about 11%. Others include BEARX, WASBX, and PSPFX. And HSTRX used to have PM exposure until Hussman cut most of them out and replaced it with foreign currencies. I don't have a problem with that. This may seem like an inefficient and illogical way to play this but it works for me considering my portfolio rarely ever moves more than 1% up or down regardless of what the markets, gold, or oil do. Generally, I have about 1/3 of the market's volatility. I barely dropped less than 0.3% today.

I only invest in a fund if the fund manager has the same views as I do. Berkowitz and I no longer have the same views on oil. Simple as that. Almost all of my fund managers are bullish on oil even if I don't own any oil fund (although PSPFX is a natural resources fund).

Incidentally, I do expect oil to have a significant correction. In the past, whenever oil tanked, I would get killed right along with oil. But with the way my portfolio is constructed now, that doesn't happen anymore. I still benefit from rising oil and gold prices yet I don't lose any sleep if both get crushed. I find this is a much less volatile way to play it.  Maybe I'm crazy and there's a better way to do it but it works just fine for me. And considering I am up this year, I can't complain.