Gold: How to Invest in the Precious Metal

Last Updated: 12. Dezember 2023By

In times of unrest, characterized by war, high inflation, interest rate hikes, and recession fears, I believe gold is a good way to secure your portfolio.

Before I discuss the various ways to invest in gold, I will first present the most important unique features of gold.

Gold has various unique features – unlike paper money, bonds, and other forms of storing value, gold is not infinitely reproducible.

– The gold market is a manageable market with a production amount of 3,611.9 tons in the past year of 2022.

– Gold is a natural form of payment and is not subject to the promise of payment of a third party.

– Gold is not subject to issuer risk, business risk, or insolvency risk.

– Gold has an extremely long history as a form of currency and is a crisis currency with no risk of default and has been value-stable for thousands of years.

I have taken a closer look at the most important investment options for you. Read now how you can benefit from rising gold prices in the future. So what options do you have to invest in gold? I will now list the different investment possibilities:

Investing in physical gold Investors who want to participate in the development of the gold price have various options. First, I present the simplest option: you can buy bars or coins. If you want to use gold as an „insurance“ against extreme events, you should buy the precious metal physically.

Coins, for example, are easily replaceable and easy to buy, as they are available in small units, among others. To be flexible when selling later, you should use well-known gold coins such as Krugerrand, American Eagle or Maple Leaf, which are in demand all over the world. You will always find buyers for these coins everywhere.

With bars, on the other hand, the surcharge is lower than with coins, due to the lower production costs and often higher weight. Bars are suitable for investors who want to „park“ larger sums in gold.

In simplified terms, one can say: the difference between the purchase and the selling price is the lower, the heavier the coin or bar is. However, there is also a disadvantage if you invest in physical gold: you have to store the coins or bars at home (theft risk), or deposit them with a bank (what happens if the bank suddenly closes?).

You can also invest in shares of gold mine operators Also the share prices of mine operators follow – in the trend – the gold price. However, the corresponding share prices usually fluctuate much more than the gold price. The fluctuations depend on many entrepreneurial and external factors. Mine stocks are therefore more suitable as a speculative „gold bet“.

Those who want to include an additional industry in their portfolio can think about mine values ​​and thus increase the risk diversification. In addition, mines have a much larger lever than the metals themselves. If the gold price rises, the corresponding share prices will usually rise more strongly. If the gold price falls, the share prices will fall disproportionately.

My conclusion: Physical gold serves as security, while gold mine stocks are an offensive bet on price gains in the next gold rally.