4) Shares of Gold funds

Gold funds are nothing but mutual fund schemes which invest directly in the shares of companies engaged in mining of raw gold, processing of gold, extraction of gold or even marketing of gold. Unlike gold ETFs, investors don't need to maintain a demat account for investing in gold funds. Another advantage is that amounts as small as Rs. 500 can also be invested in gold funds.

In this, the growth of investments is dependent on the growth of the company whose shares have been bought and not on the prevailing gold prices.

5) E- Gold

E- gold is another electronic form of investing in gold. It is offered by the National Spot Exchange Ltd. (NSEL) and is aimed at small investors who can make investments in denominations as small as 1 gram and multiples thereof. Just like in gold ETFs, an investor needs to open a demat account for investing in e-gold too.  

E- gold is the only form of electronic gold investment (apart from investing in actual physical gold) which permits conversion to physical gold, for which a fee called rematerialisation or remat charges are levied.