Investors often turn to gold as a safe haven when times are tough economically or when financial disasters like the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank send markets into a tailspin. Given the growing cost of living and the fact that the stock market is now trading below its highs, some investors are looking for a safe asset with a track record of growth, and gold fits the bill.
A beneficial alternative to traditional assets like shares and bonds, gold has attributes that make it a favorite among investors for a variety of reasons. Despite the fact that gold is a non-cash flow producing asset, people nonetheless see it as a store of value. Some individuals consider gold to be an extra inflation hedge.
The following list of five unique ways to keep gold includes an explanation of some of the risks involved.
1.Bullion gold
One of the most emotionally rewarding ways to accomplish so is to purchase gold in the form of bars or coins. Although owning more than a small quantity has considerable downsides, you’ll love the satisfaction of seeing and managing it. One of the main drawbacks is the need to safeguard and insure physical gold.
Those who buy actual gold must wait for the price of the metal to rise in order to benefit. In contrast, business owners may see their company (such as a gold mining company) produce more gold and, as a consequence, more profit, increasing the investment in that company.
You could also be able to purchase gold bullion from a nearby dealer or collector. Other possibilities include online merchants like JM Bullion and APMEX. A pawn business could sell you gold.
Keep in mind the spot price, which is the cost per ounce of gold that is presently being sold on the market, while you make your purchases. Consider trading in bars rather than coins if you don’t want to pay more for a coin’s collector value than its real gold content. The following list includes nine of the world’s most valuable coins, albeit not all of them are likely to be composed of gold.
Risks: The biggest threat, if you don’t keep your valuables safe, is that someone will physically take your gold away from you. The second-highest danger comes from having to sell your gold. It could be difficult to sell your items for their full market worth, especially if they are coins and you need money right now. You may thus need to be okay with selling your assets for far less than they would typically get on the open market.
2. Futures on gold
Gold futures are a terrific way to wager on the price of gold rising (or falling), even though actual delivery is not what spurs speculators. If you wanted, you could even take delivery of the gold in real form.
The biggest advantage of using futures to invest in gold is the high amount of leverage that can be used. In other words, you may own a lot of gold futures for a very tiny outlay. If gold futures move in the way you predict, you can quickly make a sizable profit.
Risks: Two-way leverage is a concern for futures contract investors. You will be asked to put up a sizeable sum of money (referred to as margin) in the event that the price of gold fluctuates in your favor in order to keep the contract open; otherwise, the broker will close the position and you will suffer a loss. As a result, you run the risk of making or losing a lot of money quickly in the futures market.
The futures market is sometimes only accessible to seasoned investors, so you’ll need a broker that offers futures trading—not all major brokers do.
3. ETFs that own gold
The iShares Gold Trust (IAU), the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), and the ABS Physical Gold Shares ETF (SGOL) are the three largest ETFs. These ETFs are designed to mimic the price performance of gold, minus the annual cost-to-advantage ratio of the ETF. The cost ratios for the aforementioned funds were 0.4%, 0.25%, and 0.17%, respectively, as of September 2023.
Another significant benefit of keeping an ETF versus holding bullion is how simple it is to convert it into cash at market value. You may trade the fund any day the market is open at the current rate, just as you can when selling a stock. Because of this, gold ETFs are more liquid and simpler to trade than physical gold.
Risks: Because ETFs provide you exposure to the gold price, their performance should be unaffected by changes in the price of the metal, less running costs. Although you can avoid the two main risks of owning the physical commodity with these ETFs—protecting your gold and collecting the full value for your holdings—gold may sometimes be unexpected, much like stocks.
4. Mining stocks
A further strategy to profit from rising gold prices is to invest in the mining firms that produce the metal.
Given that there are two methods which investors might profit from gold, this may be the greatest option. The miner’s income rises together with the price of gold, to start. A double-whammy effect might be produced by the miner progressively increasing output.
Risks: Before investing in certain stocks, you must understand the firm. You should use caution while selecting a respectable market participant since there are many really risky miners out there. Do not work with little miners or those that do not yet have a mine that is producing as much as feasible. Last but not least, just like any other equity, mining stocks might be erratic.
5. ETFs that own mining stocks
You don’t want to know too much about certain gold firms, do you? Then making an ETF investment can be a sensible choice. Gold miner ETFs might help you get exposure to the biggest gold producers on the market. Due to the fact that these payments are evenly distributed among all miners, you won’t be greatly damaged by any one miner’s performance.
The largest funds in this sector are iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners ETF (RING), VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX), and VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ). The expense ratios for these ETFs are 0.51 percent and 0.39 percent as of September 2023, respectively. Together with the safety of diversification, these funds combine the advantages of owning particular miners.
Risks: While the diversified ETF shields you from any one firm failing, it won’t shield you from anything that harms the whole sector, such as persistently low gold prices. Additionally, keep in mind that not all funds are created equal when choosing your investment. While some funds invest in senior miners, which are less hazardous, others do so with junior miners.
Why do investors like gold?
Juan Carlos Artigas, director of investment research at the World Gold Council, asserts that gold is a highly effective diversifier because of its documented history of offering competitive returns, liquidity, and low correlations.
For investors, these qualities are very important:
- Gold has sometimes, but not usually, outperformed stocks and bonds.
- Liquidity: Some gold-based assets may be quickly and cheaply turned into cash.
- Low correlations: Gold often performs differently from stocks and bonds, so when they increase, gold may as well as vice versa.
Gold may also provide the following advantages:
- Diversification: Due to gold’s frequent lack of correlation to other assets, it may aid in portfolio diversification, resulting in a more stable overall portfolio.
- Gold is considered a defensive investment because investors often turn to it when they see economic threats.
- These are only a few of the main benefits of gold, however, like any investment, gold has risks and drawbacks.
Even if gold sometimes performs well, it is not always clear when to buy it. It is difficult to determine when gold is affordable since it doesn’t produce cash flow on its own. Stocks, on the other hand, provide more precise signals based on a company’s profitability.
Investors must rely on someone else paying more for the metal than they did as gold does not generate cash flow. Contrarily, business owners, such a gold miner, may profit from both the rising price of gold and the firm’s higher profits. As a result, there are several ways to buy gold and benefit from it.
Bottom line
Some investors decide to put their money into cash-flowing businesses rather than relying on someone else to pay a premium for the dazzling metal since investing in gold is not for everyone. That is one of the reasons savvy investors like Warren Buffett advise avoiding gold investments in favor of businesses with steady cash flow. Furthermore, holding stocks or mutual funds is simple, and these financial instruments are quite liquid, enabling you to quickly turn your investment into cash if required.
