Though gold prices have been falling for some time now as the dollar rallied, many investors who don't want to risk losing most of their money in the stock market are choosing gold over stocks. Demand for gold, according to a CNN article has soared by 207%. http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/12/investing/us-gold-demand-surges-markets-fed/index.html Gold is a safe-haven investment?
I always have a little in gold - I'd recommend most people consider at least 5% of their money in some gold. I also usually smaller amounts of silver and perhaps several other metals as well at times - platinum, palladium, copper, etc.
I personally stay away from most commodities as they don't generate money like most other investments do. But yeah the US dollar being so high right now... I can see why people are looking into precious metals.
Dennis Gartman, often on CNBC Fast Money, suggests holding gold in ¥ or € is better than holding in the strong $. As I recall the ¥ holding has been profitable for the past 2 or 3 years.
I've got a little bit of gold, which I've had for a while. I don't plan on adding to it or reducing it - it's a notional effort at doing a bit of hedging. I still think that a lot of people at the retail end that bought heavily into the gold theme a few years back are sitting on large holdings and are wondering what to do next with it. The interest rate environment is shifting against them, institutions have offloaded a lot and the story's got a lot quieter.
I've heard quite a bit about how gold is going to skyrocket in the near future but I am a little too nervous in putting some money into it. I've also thought about investing in gold bullion, like physical gold bars and such but I think it's from more of a collectors stand-point. As with gold I've also been hearing from people saying to invest in silver.
When the economy becomes shaky, it is a normal trend for investors to get gold instead of stocks. To my mind, gold is the most stable investment of all, it is even better than real estate which sometimes loses much of its value to recession which the US has experienced some years back. But one thing that holds me back in hoarding gold is what happens when the time comes that no one wants to buy gold. Unlike real estate which has a use, gold has no other use but for investment only.
I will never touch the stocks of gold producers, I have not yet seen one with a decent cash flow. If anyone can show me one please do because it's a big hole in the portfolio. Thing about resources, I find they are good until they go down, then when they go they go fast and hard, they don't touch the sides. A friend of mine swore gold was going to 3000 by now a decade ago. I like silver better because it had a lot more industrial applications then gold.
There are people I know who literally have Kruggerands stuffed under the floorboards in case of a zombie apocalypse, or if not a zombie apocalypse, a catastrophic financial collapse. It isn't such a bad thing to do if you want to cover all bases. Stable societies have for thousands of years been crippled in very short order, and having a back-up plan in such circumstances is the archetypal "no-lose" situation.
I saw on an episode of 'Shahs of Sunset' in passing and one of the stars Asa was saying that persians and middle easterners in general always keep gold. It isn't just for jewelry and decoration. The price is always going to fluctuate, so it makes sense to hold onto it - even if the price drops in their lifetime, they pass it down to children for an inheritance. This is why gold as a gift means more to people in these cultures. They always think of it in terms of an investment. I found that fascinating to think of all personal property in terms of an investment. It's not something that kids are taught these days.
