Investment in precious metals

Hi folks,

Wanted to use the vast knowledge of the TT pool to see if we have any financial investment members. I am looking at putting some money in either gold or silver, buying it per ounce and placing it in a deposit box at the bank.

Does anyone have a recommendation or atleast advice if either metal will remain at a constant price or of course, go up in the short terms?

I have looked at conflicting reports and articles on the matter and there is always a difference of opinion.

Silver is a greater risk because you can buy much more of it thus if there is a large price change, the greater the loss or gain. Gold is priced much higher but then the return is not as great whether it be up or down.

Any suggestions?

If these terrorist attacks keep happening then gold might be a good place to invest.

I invest quite a bit in gold stocks. I see that you are Canadian and Wheaton River Minerals is a very good stock to own. It trades under WRM on TRX in Canada and WHT on AMEX in the US.

There are some extremely risky African gold stocks I own but I wouldn't recommend anyone cuz the chances of losing every penny is just as high as winning it big.

Disclaimer: I do not have WHT in my portfolio as of this morning but I have traded this stock many many times. Buy at your own risk.

@roots
Actually will not be investing in stocks per say because I do not want my name on the investment. Rather, actually going through a brokerage house and actually buying one ounce gold or silver coins. Funny you mention Canada because this is where I will be buying them. There is an admin fee and this is where they make their money. When we watch the news and the business section comes up and always shows the price of silver and gold per ounce. I think gold is something like 421.00 USD currently per ounce. This is why I need to know which is better currently? Gold or silver

In these terrible times gold is your safest bet, me lad. Or get yourself a little vat full of crude oil. The prices are ever rising.

If I have to pick one, then I would definitely go with Gold. I has been on the rise and it will continue to go higher.

Being a CPA, working with bank clients for years, and having an interest (not to mention investments) in this market myself, I'll offer my 2 cents. You haven't given us nearly the amount of detail necessary to try to help you here. Are we talking about long-term investments or short term? and how much roughly are you looking to invest? have you considered platinum? have you bothered to look at the historical data side by side?

I could go on and on with more questions. But the best advice I can give you if you are considering making a substantial investment and thus have a significant risk on the line is to find yourself a good investment consultant who can give you reliable data so that you can make an informed decision. Obviously, an online forum is not the best place to solicit this type of help. If you are interested, PM me and I can provide you with some contacts depending on your location.

Edit: For historical data on precious metals,Kitco is a decent website with fairly accurate data. I would provide the website that I use, but it's for paying investors/members only.

Hope something I've said helps.

You should look at the restriction in gold trading. I think there are restriction and regulation in Europe, not everybody can go and buy a pound of gold at the closest dealership, depending of quantities. Coins may be different.

Disclaimer : I don't have any specific knowledge, It is just something that float around my brain, It has a 50% chance to be wrong.

@spuzzum

I'd have to echo some of ajohnsn's points:

1) what is your investment horizon?
2) What about other metals (Platinum,Paladiim, Copper and Steel - steel has been a huge money earner due to China's voracious appitite at the moment)
3) What about mining stocks
4) Why Bullion over stocks
5) how about mutual funds that invest in gold, I have TGLDX myself

Gold has been historically a dog performer, but still a bellweather in investment considerations. All investment advisors will recommend you to some. That's why I have the mutual fund version...

my 2cents..

My grandfather lived through the great depression. When he died, he left us a treasure map to go find and dig up his "stash" of Krugerands in his garden. God bless him!

Peoples life experiences effect their attitudes towards money and hence investing. You'll have to find one that matches both!

Liquid gold like I said.

@Spuzzum:


Do what?

If you buy $10,000 of gold or $10,000 of silver how do you figure this makes silver riskier??? Just the silver physically weighs more.

Which weighs more: a pound of gold, or a pound of feathers?

I think that he meant was about the rapid price changes of silver during the hunt brothers run on the silver market in the early 1980s. Silver went from like 6 USD per troy ounce to like 51. gold only doubled.

Also, I forgot to mention your attitude towards buying futures or options on the precious metals...

Now that the central banks of the world have long gone off the gold standard, gold has no fundamental value. Ok, a small amount of gold is used in jewellry & electronics etc., but the vast majority of the stuff is dug up at enormous cost, purified at enormous cost only to be stored at enormous cost. It only has value because people give it value, but if this confidence is lost, then the gold price could plummet. Gold will probably do ok in the near future, as it is still seen as a hedge against inflation or market uncertainties, but I doubt if it will maintain its value in the long term. But then again, who really knows.

@JE - If you have $10,000 in gold and $10,000 in silver, makes a huge diffence, because of the amount of silver you have. Gold is +-$425 an ounce while silver is +-$7.00 an ounce. Given the price of silver and the amount of ounces you would have, there is a greater degree of fluxuation. Meaning the percentage of return be it up or down can be much greater in a shorter period of time.

@Bumpy - AJ - thanks for the advice and questions. Short term investment. Want bullion because there is no name registered in Canada about who owns it. Want something outside of the banking system.

Definitely not puting eggs in one basket, just had questions about what were the short term forcasts for gold or silver, whether one is scheduled to outperform the other.

Most financial papers read in the past few days have said gold will remain stable at 425, possibly going up depending on the price of oil and the US dollar, while silver has more potential to fall quickly.

wow all news to me

@Spazzem

I don't wish to be a smartarse, but I did work for 6 years as a broker in the City in my twenties, and have A level economics, and you are being dim.

I will try another example to explain.

Gold is $425 when sold per ounce...we shall call this a "nugget"

Silver is also say $420 when sold per 60 ounce block ($7 x 60=420)...we shall also call this a "nugget"

Your $10,000 buys you 23 nuggets of one or the other.

The issue at stake is the % movement in each price. Clearly if silver moves $1 it is a huge move, and if gold moves $1 it is a tiny move - but that is the same as buying shares at 10p and shares at 100p each. No reason at all to assume one or the other will move more (by percentage).

With respect I don't think you should be trading this stuff without a basic grasp of the concepts.

I don't think gold prices ever really move that much. It certainly isn't something you invest in for a quick return. It's what you invest in to safeguard your cash from currency drops and tax men. It's not so much an investment as a safe haven.