Gold and Silver Making Moves Lately
American Silver Eagle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Both gold and silver have moved up strongly since bottoming in late May. Conflict in the Middle East, inflation fears, seasonality and flight to safety helped along with the recognition that there is value at these levels. Easy Central Bank policies worldwide continue to devalue paper currency and seem unlikely to end in the near future because of sluggish economic growth and elevated unemployment.
For investing in silver, I prefer buying US Silver Eagle coins and holding them physically in a bank safe deposit box that I control. For investing in gold, I also like US Gold Buffalo coins in physical form. EBay is a good place to check current pricing and also to buy physical coins, or you can go direct to dealers and sometimes get a better price. You can also invest in the gold and silver exchange traded funds (GLD and SLV). ETF's allow for easy trading, but no control over the physical asset and operating costs can be high for storage of physical gold that backs the ETF. Another way to play gold and silver is to invest in mining companies, which have outperformed the underlying metal over the past three months. You can invest in specific companies such as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) or an ETF such as Market Vectors ETF Trust Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX).
