The legendary investor is still going to trade in his own time and gold is where his interest lies: “You have to have gold,” he says, “all these despotic places have been adding to their gold.”

That’s not all: “Together with the klepto currencies, youve got this real threat of do we have a repeat of 1934,” referring to the US Gold Reserve Act which confiscated the private ownership of monetary gold under president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Spot gold is up 28.6 per cent year-to-date, to $US1953 an ounce, and has been as high as $US2075 earlier this month to a record price.
“We’re in a re-run of the 1930s in some respect, and I’m not pessimistic. But then youve got the social permit and these political confrontations,” being the growing share of income that is captured by enterprise versus labour, and the pattern of unrest from Minneapolis to Minsk.
“You just can see how this idea that a few rich folks can do what they choose is no longer going to be acceptable,” he argued, “‘If you dont give me tax breaks’ — I think all that has to go.”
Since handing over the top job to Andrew Clifford two years ago, Neilson has been working for Platinum as an analyst. He’ll still be on the board (and remain its largest co-investor) but that’s now a non-executive role.
Platinum has separately named a new chairman, ex-Eastspring Investments boss and current First Samuel chairman Guy Strapp, to succeed Michael Cole. He’ll be only the second chairman in Platinum’s history.
Mr Neilson isn’t interested in accepting other corporate directorships and derides the box-ticking that governance rewards.
“Theyve become very much more elaborate in their pursuit of regulatory excellence,” he said. “To really make a contribution I think it is more than hanging around reading papers, I think you need to do some investigation of your own.”
He has been involved in the philanthropic bail-out of Sydney arts precinct Carriageworks, and interested in a few other projects.
“Theres not a performing arts operation in this town that hasn’t needed a bit of help financially,” he said. His former spouse, the arts and journalism patron Judith Neilson “has been doing a fantastic job with her performance spaces in Chippendale.”