In 1967, the South African Mint began producing their gold bullion coins. By doing so, South Africa became the first country to offer a gold coin that contained exactly one troy ounce of gold. In actuality, you should be aware that the total weight of a Krugerrand is 1.0909 troy ounces, but exactly one troy ounce of that is pure gold. The remainder is made of a copper alloy, which makes the coin more durable and scratch-resistant, and this also gives it a darker, reddish hue.

These coins became popular across the globe. Not surprisingly, other countries saw the coins’s popularity and rushed to follow suit by issuing their own one-ounce gold coins. Canada jumped into the game in 1979, and Austria soon followed in 1981. The United States didn’t join the party until 1986.

The American coin adopted many of the same aspects as the South African coin, with nearly identical physical properties such as thickness and diameter. Also, the American coin also weighs in at 1.0909 troy ounces in total, of which exactly one troy ounce is pure gold. The one primary difference is that the Gold Eagle uses a silver and copper alloy to make it more durable, which makes it seem shinier than the red-hued South African coin.

Now, let’s return to that price difference mentioned earlier. Some gold bullion coins, including these two coins, often trade at a premium to the regular spot price of gold. Oftentimes, this premium reflects the production costs that went into producing the coin, such as fabrication, distribution, and mining costs.

Following its 1967 introduction, Krugerrands often carried a premium over the spot gold price because of its popularity. But things quickly changed in 1985, when the United States and a number of other countries banned their importation in protest to the South African government and its apartheid policy. This prompted the coin’s popularity, and therefore its demand in the market, to fall off a cliff, so to speak. Reversing its previous trend, they actually traded for less than the spot gold price for a while.

Nowadays, they have recovered substantially in terms of market strength, but not to the extent before the import ban. So Krugerrands now carry a premium over the spot price of gold, but the premium carried by the Gold Eagle is still at a higher level.

In conclusion, these two coins are very similar in many ways, including the point that each contains one troy ounce exactly of pure gold. In spite of this, as a result of marketplace factors, the Gold Eagle is now bought and sold at a premium to the Krugerrand.

Gold coins are once again gaining in popularity, and two of the most popular coins are South African Krugerrands and American Gold Eagles. Learn how to protect your portfolio with gold coins.

This long term trend in the gold market is being fueled by the geopolitical uncertainity, weakness in the US Dollar, supply constraints, growing demand for gold by investors and hedgers and a host of other factors! What this means is that gold market is in a long term bull market due to multiple factors.

Generally in times of political and financial uncertainity, investors tend to seek refuge in safe haven assets like gold. Throughout human history, gold has been considered to be the ultimate investment. Even today, in modern times when we deal with paper currencies, gold is the ultimate currency. It is something that is still considered to the ultimate store of wealth. The last bull market in gold had lasted for ten years. It started in 1970 and ended in 1980. This is the best time to invest in gold as a long term investor.

But how to invest in gold? Some five to ten years back, it was difficult to invest directly in gold. Either you had to buy gold bullions or trade gold futures. But this changed altogether with the introduction of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Now, Gold ETFs is one of the easiest ways to invest in gold. These ETFs trade just like a stock. You can go long or short anytime you want. These get traded on all the major exchanges in the world like New York, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Dubai and others.

Different Gold ETFs may have different investment strategy. Some Gold ETFs buy and hold gold bullions physically. On the other hand, others invest in gold futures. Now those ETFs that are backed by the physical possession tend to follow spot gold prices very closely while those that invest in the futures also follow gold prices closely but sometimes this may deviate due to backwardation and contango.

Now when you invest in these ETFs, you will be charged a small fee as commission as well as a small annual expense. These fees are not much as compared to investing in mutual funds. A second way to invest in these commodities.

In recent years there has been a boom in the price of gold and this has led many people to develop an active interest in investing in gold & other precious metals.

Despite what many pundits claim, no one can predict future price movements of any commodity or stock, so in this article I want to lay out some guidelines that will increase your chances of your gold investment being profitable.

The first- most obvious point is that to make money on any investment you need to “buy right”. That is actually buy what you expected and pay a reasonable price for it.

The cheapest ways to buy gold, in sequence, are: bars (Ingots), Krugerrands & American Gold Eagles.

If you live in the UK, the gold eagle will probably be replaced in this list by the gold sovereign. Sovereigns also have the advantage of being exempt from C.G.T. (Capital Gains Tax) in the UK.

Once you leave this small group of coins prices rise rapidly and your opportunity for pure gold investment profit falls.

Having said that, some of the coins not mentioned, often provide greater potential for numismatic gains- but that is a different story.

The next point is, you have to be conscious that one day you plan on selling this investment. Therefore you need to be aware of what your exit strategy will be.

Who will you sell to? In what quantity? Do you want to sell small quantities over a period of time?

From these three choices, gold ingots can, at first glance, be usually purchased for the lowest percentage premium over the gold “spot” price.

It is not widely appreciated that the price for a single one ounce bar is usually exactly the same as for a single one ounce Krugerrand- and in quantity Krugerrands often work out cheaper. The reason is that there is a vibrant market that “knows” what a Krugerrand is -whereas some one ounce ingots especially those from lesser know smelters, seem to carry a slight cloud of suspicion (it’s as if you have to “prove the ingot is good”).

However, if you plan on investing more money in gold, the larger bars, such as one kilo sell for a lower percentage premium than Krugerrands. But, again, they are not as easy to resell. You will need to visit a bullion dealer to get a good purchase price for gold bars. Would a restriction like this affect you?

Another issue with the larger bars is that you can’t simply sell a portion of it when you want to!

The American Gold Eagle:

This has many of the same advantages as the Krugerrand. It is a widely recognized and traded coin. It sells (normally) for marginally more than Krugerrands- but depending on where in the Country you are, you may be able to get the same price as a Krugerrand. It is a superior looking coin and would get my “thumbs up”, as the bullion coin of choice.

The final piece of Gold investment advice could be considered common sense- but it bears repeating:
Buy when prices are low!

Whatever you invest in, be it stocks, bonds or gold buy when the price is low rather than high!

The recent boom in the gold price has in part been driven by people hearing about the price rises in the media and trying to jump on the bandwagon.

If you are just finding your feet in the gold investment world, it may be wise to watch, learn and wait till prices pull back before investing.

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This gold trading strategy is simple and involves making a series of four trades and then repeating that process again and again as many times as you want. This way, you are able to manage your risk and make a successful living as a precious metals trader. Suppose, the gold market is in an uptrend! You buy one gold contract that means 100 ounces of gold. You can buy a futures contract on a margin that is usually around $5,000 with most of the brokers. So, with only $5,000 you are able to control 100 ounces of gold in the market. Each point the futures contract moves up or down, you make or lose $10.

Now, suppose you buy one gold contract and that contract moves 50 points by the end of the week. You sell it at that and make a nice $500! This is your first trade in a series of four trades that you are about to make in the gold market.

Now, markets move up and down. When the market moves against you, you don’t need to panic if you have managed your risk. When the market moves down, you are confident that it will move up again. The market moves down and then it does start moving up after a few days. You again enter the market with two gold futures contracts. Within a few days, the market moves up by 50 points. You decide to sell your two contracts and realize your profit of $1,000. This is your second trade in a series of four trades.

Gold prices always rise when there is uncertainty in the global economy. In times of uncertainty, wealthy investors tend to run towards gold. Suppose, rumors are flying high about some event in the world and this is increasing the uncertainty in the financial markets. Gold prices are on the rise again. You now buy three gold contracts. By the end of the week, each contract is up by 100 points. You make a cool $3,000 when you sell the three contracts. This way, you complete your third trade in a series of four trades.

Suddenly gold prices drop like what happened a few days back. You are shocked. But don’t worry; this is the way markets work. You wait for a few days and the prices again start climbing. You buy four gold futures contracts this time. You wait a few days before the contracts each move 50 points. You sell all the four contracts making a nice $2,000. This was the fourth trade in a series of four trades. Your net profit is $500+$1,000+$3,000+$2,000=$6,500! Not bad! Now, you will start all over again with a new series of four trades repeating what you did above.

The essence of this gold trading strategy is to remove your profits from your account once the series of four trades is complete and start all over again with one contract. These series of four trades you can repeat as many times as you want, removing the profits at the end of each four trades like above. This is how pro traders trade and how you should trade too by pyramiding your position through a series of four trades.

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Why You Should Not “Invest” in Gold
Don’t get me wrong – I am certainly not against investing in gold but as an asset class it is worthwhile seeing how it behaves differently to other investments such as stocks, bonds or real estate. When you buy a stock in IBM you receive a yearly dividend (hopefully) and (hopefully) the value of the stock goes up over time, the same when you buy real estate as an investment. With Gold it is a little bit different. The reason why gold is seen as a safe haven is that it is a store of value, it never loses its purchasing power. There is an oft quoted adage that an ounce of gold in Roman times would have bought an army officer a fine suit of clothes, that in Shakespeare’s times an ounce of gold would have bought a good quality set of clothes and today with gold at just over $1000 this would buy you a good Armani Suit. BUT just as over time it does not lose purchasing power it does not increase purchasing power. The real long term nature of gold is as Insurance and not as an investment. As wars are fought, governments collapse, economies tumble people have rushed into gold because they know it is a place where they can preserve the wealth they have.

Yes you can point to gold’s meteoric rise over the last 8 or so years and say what a great “investment” it has been but if you see gold as insurance and mainly buy it as that then you will be able to withstand volatile swings in price that often occur in the gold market, you will be less worried about day to day actions in price and you will perhaps see that the price of gold did not go up just the value paper money in your wallet went down.

Gold Will Protect Me From Coming Super or Hyperinflation – Or Maybe Not
Many gold commentators talk about excessive money printing by central banks, how it will inevitably lead to sky high inflation even hyperinflation and how gold will protect you. Well yes and no. Gold is not such a immediate hedge against inflation that everybody thinks as much as it a hedge against political risk. When Gold skyrocketed to $850 in 1980 it was not a reaction to high prices so much as to the uncertainty surrounding the future of the dollar. In the following years inflation still persisted but the gold price plummeted. Gold is a hedge against inflation really in the long term because in the long term it retains its purchasing power but will it rise 10% just because inflation rose 10% – history is unclear on that.

There is A High Risk of a Worldwide Currency Collapse – So Gold is the Only Safe Haven????
It is February 2010 and Greece is on the brink of bankruptcy with Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain all waiting in line to follow suit, if these countries go down then they will take many others with them. Countries like Germany will also be drastically effected because they lent the money, kept part of the debt and then sold the rest on to Insurance companies and Pension Funds along with insurance called Credit Derivatives. States in the USA like California and Illinois are in worse shape than Greece. The whole worldwide financial system is massively intertwined through a complex system of derivatives, there was massive over borrowing and someone will have to pay the piper. There is therefore a certain inevitability about a full on currency crisis making gold ever more attractive because it is no one’s liability it cannot be printed ad infinitum. However much they try governments cannot corrupt it.

However inevitable a currency crisis or collapse may seem to you, for there to actually be one the majority of the market or at least the big players in that market have to agree with you. While the fundamentals are in place it can take a long time for the mass to catch on to those fundamentals. You may not be fooled by bailouts and government posturing but in the short term many people are. So for you to be proved right may take many years with lots of twists and turns.

What we face at the moment is a huge credit collapse never seen on such a magnitude before so who knows how it will play out. If you remember back to 2008 this particular crash caused the gold price to collapse and the dollar to strengthen -so in the short to medium term this could happen again. Once again if you see gold as insurance – the short to medium term does not matter so much.

Gold as Protection during a Financial Crisis
If gold is your only hedge against financial crisis then this could be playing with fire a little. Think that there are many scenarios where having gold will not help because no one has any use for it, no one wants to exchange their bag of wheat for your ounce of gold because well you cant really eat it. Gold is a great store of value but it is not the only one. Food, basic clothes, seeds, – essentials that people always need are also great stores of value with a much wider market so if you are motivated towards buying gold because you envision financial catastrophe then it may pay to have a good think about other stores of value. The great thing is about having a large store of food and essentials is that regardless what happens YOU will always need then. So it is never money down the drain!!!!

Bartering with Gold Could Prove Very Expensive
If you are investing in gold because you envision you may be bartering with it some day – well think on. I’m sure someone will swap a loaf for an ounce of gold but that will be a mighty expensive loaf!!!! Look at having precious metals in smaller denominations – junk silver coins – old US coins that have silver in them are a great alternative. They are easy to buy from any coin store and are very low denomination (a silver dime has less than$2 worth of silver in it )

Find pragmatic advice in the sphere of forex book – make sure to study the web site. The time has come when concise information is truly within your reach, use this possibility.

Cheap stocks, by definition, from the U.S. SEC, are defined as stocks that are less than $ 5 in value per share (most of them less than $ 1), which are traded over the counter, through the quote services. Cheap stocks, as they say, “bad bargain”, and hundreds of millions of dollars are sold every day in cheap stocks.

Penny Stock Trading is a speculative market, and not listed on the NYSE, NASDAQ or AMEX. They often have such low prices because they are very small, inexperienced company, although often these companies were previously traded on the NYSE and other markets, but because they do not meet their standards, they were kicked out, and now Penny stocks.

Penny stocks often attract new investors because of their extremely low prices and the attractiveness of large growth fairly quickly. Although this is a gambling mentality sometimes pays off, often these companies go out of business or lose their value all together. Shares Trading Penny is extremely risky for many reasons.

There is limited liquidity, because it can not always be a buyer willing to buy stocks you are trying to sell. It is often difficult to decide what to buy due to lack of financial reporting standards, so research a company before buying stock is virtually impossible. There is also a large number of fraud in penny stock game, because of low standards and lack of available information.

If you have an interest in the stock market, the popular shopping stores, probably a penny seems very attractive to you, because the potential for high returns on their investments. There are many things you should look at before the trade in these type of actions, including the timing of your purchases and when to buy stocks.

It is very important before the start of trading penny stock that you have accumulated a considerable amount of money to work. While penny stocks are very attractive to investors because of their low cost (SEC defines penny stocks as stocks that are less than $ 5 per share per share), many of these stocks lose their value in relation to events as a company goes out of business.

You may also want to be able to buy and sell these shares at moments notice, and at this point you will not have time to move funds to brokerage account, so it’s important to start penny stock trading where you are comfortable financially to do so.

Prior to investing in penny stocks, you also need to make one big decision whether to use a broker / consultant to help you decide which stocks to invest, or do it yourself using an online site. There are benefits to each side of the trade.

With the help of a broker, you must pay interest to the broker as they occurred, but you get the benefit of showing the ideas of an experienced professional who can help you maneuver the often misleading information available there on these stocks. But in managing things yourself using an online site, you usually pay a fixed fee and wind to reduce costs, make your trade.

If you would like to move forward trading cheap stocks on your own, using the Internet site, timing your purchases will be important. This is a good idea to trade through the site, which will make recommendations for your time and what stocks are hot. Although you can not rely on this information to turn into something concrete, at least, you will have some guidance on how to choose the right penny stocks.
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