Gold Investor

Are Gold, Art And Bitcoin Worth Your Money In 2014?
2013 is coming to an end and we are well into the prediction season as financial prognosticators look at investment ideas for 2014. Hmmm...bitcoins.

John Embry wonders out loud if there is an agreement between the East and West on the price of gold
Every day I wonder, ‘Is there a deal between the East and the West so that we are permitting all of our Western gold to be taken by the East so they don’t collapse our paper markets?’ I don’t know, but the fact is I couldn’t be more bullish the prices of physical gold and silver going forward.

Sell bitcoins, buy gold
A lot of bitcoiners were looking to buy physical gold. Seems like this was a good call for last week as Bitcoin has been on a real roller coaster ride since its recent highs.

Four big reasons to stay away from gold: Strategists
Does this qualify for a contrary indicator? Is this a "9 out of 10 dentists agree..." moment for gold?

There is no shortage of investment themed books. A quick look on Amazon shows that tens of thousands of books on this topic are currently available. Many authors write about investment ideas, investment theory, biographies of famous investors, investigative reports, economics, philosophy of money, etc. So how does Michael Lewis' Liars Poker differ from the rest? Since I have not read the other tens of thousands of investment books, I can't provide a definitive view about its relative value (or lack thereof). What I can tell you is that after reading this book, I have a better understanding of how Wall Street operated and evolved in the important financial period of the 1980s and to some extent, probably still does today.

By David Morgan
The Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) are a family comprised of 6 metals – platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. But for our purpose today (and for most investors), we are only interested in the first two – platinum and palladium. Platinum is usually more expensive than gold. But for well over a year, it actually traded for less – substantially less. One could purchase a troy ounce of platinum for $150 or so less than a troy ounce of gold. (As a side note, during the time of this unusual inverted pricing relationship, in expectation of the “norm” reestablishing itself, I placed a long platinum/short gold spread trade. Of course, this did indeed take place and I was able to make a good profit on the trade.)

The common wisdom amongst gold bugs and many concerned investors has been that inflation would increase with the financial mess that we find ourselves in - to the point where Weimar Republic type hyperinflation may wage havoc over us. I don't argue that there is inflation in the things people need and this is shown in the way that Shawdowstats tracks the CPI. But the $1 trillion in annual US Federal Reserve printing and the quadrupling of its balance sheet, plus easing across other parts of the world have not lead to hyperinflation. Jim Puplava of the Financial Sense Newshour looks at this very topic in his Big Picture review and instead looks at the broader disinflationary cycle that may be in play.

The price of silver has seen great gains over the last decade. With prices now ranging in the mid-$20s, may people are suggesting and with this demand, many companies are providing "copper bullion" products. Looking through some of these offerings, I can't but wonder if this is a sound investment for the future. Copper has many industrial uses which gives it some intrinsic value but the still relative low cost of copper means that it has a "low density of value". Roughly speaking, the value in one ounce of gold can be matched with approximately 155 pounds (2,500 ounces) of copper or 55 ounces of silver. As one can see, copper is just not very practical.