Buying gold: ETFs may own companies or the metal

— -- Q: Why don't shares of gold stocks and gold mutual funds always rise along with the price of gold?

A: The price of gold isn't always reflected in the price of gold stocks.

Remember, that gold companies aren't the same as bars of gold. They have people, expenses, inventory, capital expenditures and competition. All these can cause a gold company's stock to diverge from gold prices.

Barrick, for instance, does benefit from higher gold prices and higher demand for gold. But there are other considerations. For instance, Standard & Poor's analyst Leo Larkin writes in a report that the company's profit margins could shrink due to lower copper prices and other increased corporate costs.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Click here to see previous Ask Matt columns.