Examining the Long-Term Benefits of Gold Investing

Dow down, but only by a bit. Gold off, but only by a touch. Oil lower too, but just by a smidge.

We don’t go in for daily numbers, Fellow Reckoner. They’re too volatile. Too capricious. Too whimsical. One minute, stocks are on an upward tear. The next they’re crashing down again. Then you take a step back and realize the chart you’re looking at tracks movements by the fractions of a point. It’s like watching footage from a tiny camera, strapped to the back of an ant…at an IMAX theatre. Comfortably navigable ground suddenly becomes a terrifying terrain of Himalayan proportions. Who needs the headache, the vertigo or the motion sickness?

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Time to Accumulate Gold and Silver

Do you own enough gold and silver for what lies ahead?

If 10% of your total investable assets (i.e., excluding equity in your primary residence) aren’t held in various forms of gold and silver, we at Casey Research think your portfolio is at risk.

After speaking at the Cambridge House conference last month and talking with many attendees, I came away convinced that most investors fall into one of two categories: those who hold an abundance of gold and silver (which tends to be physical forms only), and those with little or none. While both groups need to diversify, I’m a little more concerned about the second group. Here’s why.

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Time to Accumulate Gold and Silver

Do you own enough gold and silver for what lies ahead?

If 10% of your total investable assets (i.e., excluding equity in your primary residence) aren’t held in various forms of gold and silver, we at Casey Research think your portfolio is at risk.

After speaking at the Cambridge House conference last month and talking with many attendees, I came away convinced that most investors fall into one of two categories: those who hold an abundance of gold and silver (which tends to be physical forms only), and those with little or none. While both groups need to diversify, I’m a little more concerned about the second group. Here’s why.

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Could Gold Rise on One Country’s Meltdown?

Gold is ending the week doing a little more backing and filling. After yesterday’s run-up, the spot price has pulled back to $1,665.

$2,000 looks far off in the distance. To say nothing of last September’s $1,900 high.

Then again, it could happen with the snap of a finger.

“A push on toward $2,000 is definitely on the cards before the year is out,” says Philip Klapwijk, “although a clear breach of that mark is arguably a more likely event for the first half of next year.”

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Buying Gold on the Dips

The currencies and metals added to their gains yesterday as the day went along. The euro (EUR) traded briefly at 1.32, and the Aussie dollar (AUD) traded through $1.04. There were more Fed heads speaking, and Fed Head William Dudley agreed with Fed Head Janet Yellen, who had said the previous day that keeping interest rates near zero through 2014 was needed. Dudley said, “I haven’t seen any set of information that should suggest to me we should change that view.”

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Warren Buffett Scorns Gold. Bad Move!

Warren Buffett doesn’t like gold. In this year’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Warren Buffett scorned gold as an asset that is “forever unproductive.”

And he’s right about that…

But investors don’t buy gold because they hope it will produce something. They buy gold because they know that no one can produce it. Therefore, the more that folks distrust their national currency, the more they put their trust in the ultimate currency: gold.

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The Biggest Fire Sale in History

It’s going to be the biggest fire sale in history — and it begins in 2012.

Europe’s banking sector holds 2½ times as many assets as the U.S. banking sector. It’s huge. And it’s in big trouble. Europe’s banking sector needs cash — mountains of cash.

As a result, it will have to sell more than $1.8 trillion of assets, which will likely take a decade to work through. For perspective, it sold only $97 billion from 2003–10. “The list of asset sales is the longest I’ve seen in 10 years,” says Richard Thompson, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. Knowing how these things work, the final tally could well be double that. The world has never seen anything this big before.

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By Gold

Have you ever had any doubts about gold? Does it sometimes feel like it should be performing better? Are you concerned about its volatility? Do you worry about how it might perform in the future? Have you ever wondered about its true purchasing power? Maybe you’re nervous about a big drop in price again? I decided to go directly to the source to address these concerns: Gold himself. He put his arm around me and asked me to tell you a few things…

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Gold in the Face of Facebook

Stocks are up today. The major indexes have jumped 1%… for no obvious reason.

There’s talk of a halo effect from the pending IPO of Facebook, which could file the paperwork as early as today.

Oy… Talk about “riding on a smile and a shoeshine,” to borrow from Death of a Salesman.

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