What Is The Price Of Gold Today
As of September 28, 2021, the price of gold is $1,734.50 per ounce.
In the U.S. the COMEX is the primary exchange for gold futures, and therefore, the place where the most-widely quoted gold prices are set. The London Bullion Market Association also provides a twice-daily “fix” price used as a benchmark for large market participants.
In general, look for whats known as the spot price, thats the price at which buyers and sellers are willing to trade gold today, as opposed to some future date
Are Their Ethical Concerns With Buying Gold
More and more investors are worried about the social and environmental impact of their investments, and gold mining can leave a significant toll on the environment and raises concerns around human rights and governance since gold mines are located in conflict-affected or otherwise high-risk areas.
In 2019, the World Gold Council took steps to implement guidelines for member companies, as did the International Council on Mining and Metals. Both require that participating mining companies publish information on their progress publicly, making it easier for consumers to find.
The Fresh Bout Of Uncertainty Once Again Puts The Spotlight On Safe
Global stock markets have been roiled under threat from new Covid-19 variant Omicron. Global markets including Indian bourses went into a tailspin following the news of a highly mutated variant of Covid-19.
The European Stoxx60 dropped 2.8% while Dow Jones in US saw its worst drop of the year as Wall Street indices plunged and the dollar floundered. Back home, BSE Sensex closed 1,687.94 points or 2.87% lower at 57,107.15 while the NSE barometer Nifty50 index settled 509.80 points or 2.91% lower at 17,026.45 marking the worst day for stocks in seven months.
The World Health Organisation recognised the newly-recognised omicron strain as a variant of concern.
Several countries including India imposed fresh restrictions on travel especially for inbound passengers from South Africa and a few other nations to screen against the new strain which heath experts say might be more transmissible.
The fresh bout of uncertainty once again puts the spotlight on safe-haven precious metals such as gold and silver.
Gold futures on Multi Commodity Exchange gained Rs 219 or 0.46% from its previous days closing levels to Rs 47,640 per 10 gram on Friday. It touched a high of Rs 48,223 and a low of Rs 47,535 during the day.
Commodity analysts say a positive outlook for bullion in the near term can also be attributed to US Federal Reserves stance on interest rates hikes and depreciating Indian Rupee against US dollar .
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Physical Gold Is At A Record High
If you thought the financial crisis was a wild ride for investors, then the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has completely raised the bar. In just a few short months, equities have packed in about a decade’s worth of volatility. We’ve witnessed the fastest and steepest correction in history, followed by one of the strongest quarterly performance in history , as well as a brief period of negative oil prices.
For many investors, it’s been a challenging year. That is, unless you were holding precious metals like gold.
Few investments are looking as lustrous at the moment as physical gold. Over the past six months , gold is up $363 an ounce, which is good enough for a 23% increase. The precious metal has now bounced almost $900 off of its decade-low of $1,050.60 an ounce, set back in 2015.
The question is, with gold notching a new all-time high on Monday, should you be buying gold stocks, or taking this as your cue to avoid the industry?
Let me not beat around the bush. Yes, you should be buying gold stocks right now.
Why Invest In Gold In 2021
Since around late Summer of 2020, golds bull run came to a pause, while equities and Bitcoin stole the show. Since the start of 2021, gold has only climbed 3% compared to other commodities, like lumber which has more than 300% ROI behind it.
A distinct lack of performance in an incredibly scarce asset while all other scarce assets rise due to inflation, simply doesnt make sense. Things like art, whiskey, crypto, stocks, and luxury items have all risen in the economic environment.
The underperformance in gold markets and other precious metals wont last long, and its next rise will shock the world. The asset spent more than ten years consolidating at its bottom before the new bull market started theres no reason to think it was over in less than one year.
As the original hedge against inflation, even if Bitcoin does end up outperforming it, gold will still shine in the coming hyperinflation economic environment. The best way to avoid inflation, is to hold gold.
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Is Gold Still A Good Investment Today
Success Coach, Business Development Consultant, Motivational Speaker, and Writer
In the last few months, China’s economy has been faltering, and it has been having an effect on world financial markets. Due to this recent development, gold prices have shot up compared to what it used to be before.
During the period of the introduction of the Gold Reserve Act back in 1934, the price of gold was set to be $35 an ounce. That is a record increase of more than 300% between then and now.
Actually, gold is a volatile investment. From the picture below, you can see how its price fluctuates within a period of just 24 hours.
When it comes to gold, prices can go down as well as up, and over the last few years they have done both. At the height of the recession, way back in 2011 for instance, gold hit a record high of $2,000 per ounce. But by the end of 2014, the price of gold had fallen to $1,200 per ounce.
Right now, the price of gold is hovering around the $1,250 mark, which is 18% higher than it was at the beginning of 2016.
Considering all these is gold a safe investment and if so, why should you invest in it now?
It provides a good option for diversification
To be a successful long-term investor, you must diversify. A lot of people are always quick to jump into shares and stocks. But judging from the financial meltdown that took place in 2008, it will not be a wise move to have only one form of investment.
Different Ways to Invest in Gold
Why Investors Like Gold
Gold has a proven track record for returns, liquidity, and low correlations, making it a highly effective diversifier, says Juan Carlos Artigas, director of investment research at the World Gold Council.
These qualities are especially important for investors:
- Returns: Gold has outperformed stocks and bonds over certain stretches, though it doesnt always beat them.
- Liquidity: If youre buying certain kinds of gold-based assets, you can readily convert them to cash.
- Low correlations: Gold often performs differently from stocks and bonds, meaning when they go up, gold may go down or vice versa.
In addition, gold offers other potential advantages:
- Diversification: Because gold is generally not highly correlated to other assets, it can help diversify portfolios, meaning the overall portfolio is less volatile.
- Defensive store of value: Investors often retreat to gold when they perceive threats to the economy, making it a defensive investment.
Those are a few of the major benefits of gold, but the investment like all investments is not without risks and drawbacks.
While gold performs well sometimes, its not always clear when to purchase it. Since gold by itself doesnt produce cash flow, its difficult to determine when its cheap. Thats not the case with stocks, where there are clearer signals based on the companys earnings.
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Here’s Why You Should Consider Buying Gold Stocks And Not Physical Gold
However, owning physical gold isn’t the best way to play this ongoing rally. Instead, you’re going to want to consider buying gold stocks or an exchange-traded fund that owns gold stocks.
Why mining stocks and not physical gold? First, the leverage is considerably greater with gold stocks. If gold rises another $100 an ounce, you’d make a little over 5% on your investment in the physical metal. But if a gold mining stock sees an extra $100 in average selling price, its cash operating margin per ounce will probably rise by a double-digit percentage.
Additionally, gold mining companies have the ability to proactively and reactively respond to market conditions. New mines can be brought online or costs can be reined in, depending on existing market conditions. That’s not something that’s a consideration with owning physical gold.
To build on this point, management teams and boards also have the power to reward shareholders through capital return programs. This may involve a dividend or share repurchase program. By comparison, physical gold offers no perks of ownership.
Finally, it’s a lot easier to peruse an income statement or balance sheet for a publicly traded company than it is to navigate macroeconomic data on physical gold.
In other words, it’s a no-brainer to buy gold stocks if you believe physical gold is in a long-term bull market.
Gold Price: Here’s Why The Yellow Metal Could Double And The Best Ways To Buy It
For thousands of years, the most popular investment was gold: the prettiest metal you could bend, re-form, bury and reuse endlessly.
And even though investors have many more options nowadays, gold still has its champions.
One hedge fund manager, who predicted the metals rise to an all-time high of $2,000 per ounce last summer, is confident the price could climb to $3,000 to $5,000 an ounce in the next three to five years.
With the yellow metal sitting near $1,750 after a more than $40 drop on Thursday its biggest fall in six weeks now might be an opportune time to follow his lead.
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History Of Gold Investment
Since the stock markets began, gold has gained a reputation to have a negative correlation to stocks and a positive correlation when compared to inflation. However, goldâs history as a financial asset and store of value began long before this.
Gold coins were minted and used as currency as far back as 550BC, but gold was known as a sign of wealth long before its use as a currency. Treasures containing gold have been discovered from as early as 4000BC, so the precious metal has been notorious for its relevance to power and wealth for many millennia.
However, it was not until the late 1800s when gold gained its value in contemporary finance. The majority of nations adopted the gold standard, which involves fixing the value of their currency to the price of gold. Since, the gold standard has been dropped and readopted in many countries until it was finally replaced by freely floating fiat currenciesâ in 1971.
The price of goldâ remained relatively stagnant until the 2008 financial crisis, when the price of gold rose from around £15 to £30 a gram in the following years. This spike in price was in response to the adoption of quantitative easing by central banks. The justification of goldâs appreciation in value follows the general logic that QE creates inflation, and gold prices generally rise alongside inflation.
Let There Be Glitter Why Dhanteras Is A Good Time To Invest In Gold
Its that time of the year again when all that glitters is gold. Yes, the festive season is here, and around Dhanteras, the demand for the precious yellow metal usually sees a rise. This day is considered auspicious to buy gold, but ever since the pandemic struck, weve become more cautious about our financial decisions. Is investing in gold still a good idea? Should we take the plunge yet again this festive season? The answer is a big YES.
Although the price of gold is high, it is important to understand that historically, it has proven to be a good hedge against weakened currency and inflation. This makes it a particularly safe investment, more so when we are living in uncertain times.
The love affair with gold
Gold has always been considered a lucrative investment. Theres no denying that price fluctuations occur in the short term, but their relevance, in the long run, is what matters. Investors all over the world consider gold as a bankable alternative to traditional stocks and bonds, owing to the advantage of risk-adjusted returns and portfolio diversification.
Moreover, gold is highly liquid, which is a huge assurance for investors that it can help them tide over troubled times.
What are some of the advantages of investing in gold?
For more detailed and in-depth information on gold, visit www.mygoldguide.com.
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Is Buying Gld Shares The Same As Buying Gold
From the average investor or trader’s standpoint, buying GLD shares is the same thing as buying gold. GLD shares will replicate exposure to gold prices, minus expenses related to storing the gold and trading GLD shares. However, it is important to understand that GLD shares do not give you ownership of physical gold. You can’t trade in your GLD shares for the gold bars, for example.
Gold Funds Beat Physical Gold
As attractive as coins and bullion may be, funds are the easiest way for retail investors to get exposure to gold. They’re becoming increasingly popular too. Gold ETFs enjoyed record inflows of $47.9 billion in 2020 almost double the previous record set in 2016. In terms of tonnage, gold ETF demand rose 120% over 2019. Demand for bars and coins grew just 3% year-over-year.
No wonder: It’s much easier to get gold exposure by holding a gold fund electronically in a brokerage account rather than receiving, storing and insuring the physical metal.
The SPDR Gold Shares , the worlds largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, has about $61.3 billion in assets. The ETF tracks the price of gold bullion. If you choose to invest this way, Kiplinger prefers the lower-cost iShares Gold Trust , which has annual expenses of 0.25%, compared with 0.40% for GLD.
You also can invest in numerous mutual funds and ETFs that invest in the stocks of gold-mining companies.
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Why Debt Fuels A Gold Rush
London-based wealth manager Price Value Partners has been investing in both gold and silver on behalf of clients since the company was formed seven years ago. Its view is that the world is currently overwhelmed with debt, particularly government debt but also corporate and household debt.
So it expects governments worldwide to use inflation to reduce their debt burden. Says co-founder Tim Price: ‘In light of the quite extraordinary reflationary stimulus occurring everywhere, particularly in the United States, all commodities should benefit from rising prices, especially gold and silver that are regarded as hedges against inflation.’
Price Value currently allocates between 30 and 40 per cent of investors’ portfolios to assets including gold and silver. They also invest in gold and silver mining companies provided they can buy shares at a sensible price.
The company is increasingly buying other commodities such as aluminium, tin, copper and zinc. The gold stocks it invests in are generally small mining companies, usually in Australia or Canada.
A low-cost way to invest in gold is to put money into a fund that tracks the metal’s price.
David Henry, an investment manager at asset manager Quilter Cheviot, likes iShares Physical Gold. The fund has low charges of 0.15 per cent a year.
Jasmine Birtles is founder of personal finance and investment site MoneyMagpie.com.
How To Buy And Keep Gold Coins
If you decide to buy gold coins, get it from a reputable dealer or financial institution. We wouldnt buy gold coins on Craigslist, but thats just us.
If you buy gold coins from individuals or from anyone else youre not sure of, have the gold coins authenticity verified first. You dont want a collection of gold-plated lead.
U.S. gold coins come in one, one-half, one-quarter, and one-tenth ounce denominations. You pay a premium over the price per ounce when you buy gold coins, which is how the dealer makes a profit.
You may pay a higher premium if you buy gold coins less than one ounce each. You should generally buy bullion coins, such as the American Gold Eagle, Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, or South African Krugerrand.
Collectors coins, called numismatic coins, are a different game than bullion gold coins. They can sell at a very high premium, and their prices are dependent on more factors.
Unless you are very knowledgeable about collectors coins, stick with bullion coins.
Once you have the coins, you may be tempted to run the coins through your hands, like Ebenezer Scrooge.
But of course you wont you should leave coins in their cases, away from scratches and fingerprints.
Dont even think of hiding gold in your house, unless you have a safe. Thieves know where to look, or they can find it with a metal detector.
For very little money, you can rent a safe at a bank for your gold and other valuables.
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Investing In Gold: 5 Factors That Make It The Best Investment Option Right Now
1. A top investment tool to beat inflation
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2. A low rate of interest3. Easy liquidity4. A tangible source for wealth creation during the current pandemic5. It is one of the safest and most effective portfolio diversifiersDisclaimer: This article has been produced on behalf of World Gold Council by Times Internetâs Spotlight team
