Precious Metals?
January 28, 2011 by
Filed under Silver Investment FAQ
Do you think its a good time to buy gold, silver, platinum, and/or palladium ? Given the subprime mortgage crisis results, globabl tensions, and a weakening dollar etc… I think Russia will be running into deficit on palladium in a few years so maybe its a good time to buy some? Silver seems to volatile to be worth investing in (and too high right now)… Platinum is just too expensive for me to invest in right now also… Gold seems like its good (more scarce, jewelry, besides its the main one people will invest into).. Any ideas, also im looking into long term investment (greater than 5 years) and to buy PHYSICAL bullion NOT STOCKS…
Thanks
gold is the way to go.
I think precious metals have already had their run up, and they are due for a fall. The price of gold is based almost entirely on speculation.
I do like commodity materials, however, like steel, copper, zinc, and etc. The development in emerging countries like china provides solid market for such metals and materials.
If you want to speculate on Gold buy a gold ETF like IAU. There’s all kinds of fees and difficulties with storing and trading actual bars of gold and coins. Some people think Silver is a better bet than gold. SLV tracks silver prices.
I love gold. The run is not over, it’s just too bad you didn’t buy your bullion earlier this year or last. I don’t have the money to buy bullion, but I’ve got GLD. I’m very happy, and confident it will reach $800 this year. And at the rate it’s been moving, I’d love to see Gold at $850 by the end of this year.
We have to move past the psychological price barriers, which tends to take time and creates corrections. Precious metals are volatile, there’s no doubt. Especially these days as many people bought in at significantly lower prices a while back. What we’ve seen over the last month has been constant corrections due to profit taking. The people who got in under $600, and even as low as $300, are very happy.
I had a professor who said that bad news is followed by more bad news. The credit crisis is far from over, and it is fueling the drive to hard assets. Bail outs and pumping liquidity cannot go on forever, and neither can interest rate cuts. Anyone who says otherwise is probably a real estate agent or has a mother who was a real estate agent, and they either just don’t see the big picture or they’re just unwilling to budge from a position they’ve held for many years.
To answer your question more directly, I think precious metals are expensive at this point, but still good to buy. I mean, just because we may not double our money in 6 months doesn’t mean it’s a bad investment. In the long term, we are looking for increased inflation, a falling dollar, and more financial sector problems in general. I’ve heard and read about gold speculated at $1000/oz next year and $2000/oz next year, and guess what? We don’t know what will happen. I own GLD, and I’m not budging. If I could afford to buy more I would. I see it as a speculative hedge, if that makes any sense.
By the way, I believe that inflation in the US is closer to 14%, as opposed to any “official” publication. Take a look at prices in general. Everything is more expensive – inflation causes the dollar decline. It’s not fear of inflation, it’s the realization that inflation exists and it’s worse than the public is told. Luxury car manufacturers are advertising even more heavily now because they see that US consumption is falling due to a low dollar. They’re trying to get whatever they can before things get really bad. The same is true for real estate agents, god bless them. And if I could afford to buy lots of houses I would.
Physical bullion, eh? I wish I could because it would just be cool. If you’re buying a lot, I hope you have a place that is very safe.
Just remember that gold is volatile, and it does not follow a perfectly negative correlation to inflation, but it’s pretty close. Though I see inflation rising and the dollar falling, there are many other factors that come into play. Good luck.