QUOTE AND NEWS
Reuters  5 hrs ago  Comment 
Gold prices are looking even more vulnerable after April's price crash, as rampant inflation expected from successive rounds of monetary easing fails to materialise.
The Times of India  9 hrs ago  Comment 
Snapping a three day losing streak, gold prices recovered by Rs 100 to Rs 27,050 per 10 grams in the national capital on Saturday on scattered buying by retailers at prevailing lower levels.     
TheStreet.com  May 24  Comment 
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- TheStreet's Jill Malandrino was with Jim Wyckoff of Kitco.com to talk about gold and some of its key technical levels and fundamentals, going forward. "The take-away this week is that the bulls have shown resilience,"...
Mining Weekly  May 24  Comment 
Chilean environmental authorities on Friday ordered Barrick Gold to halt work at its massive Pascua-Lama project and fined the company $16-million, citing serious environmental violations at the site. A Chilean court in April had partially halted...
Clusterstock  May 24  Comment 
The drop in gold prices since the beginning of the year has broken the spirits of investors seeking it as a safe haven for their wealth. Short positions are at all-time highs, and the chartists will tell you that there has been "considerable...
Forbes  May 24  Comment 
(Kitco News) - The gold market will keep an even closer eye on economic data next week, following comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday regarding the fate of the Fed’s bond-buying program.
Mining Weekly  May 24  Comment 
Gold miner Agnico Eagle Mines on Friday announced another strategic investment in a junior company, this time paying $11.25-million for 7.5-million share units of explorer Probe Mines. Agnico Eagle bought the units from Cormark Securities at $1.50...
Energy and Capital  May 24  Comment 
Keith Kohl takes a behind-the-scenes look at the picks-and-shovel investments in hydraulic fracturing.
Forbes  May 24  Comment 
There?s an even split between survey participants in the weekly Kitco News Gold Survey, with half of participants bullish and half bearish or neutral.
Business Times - Malaysia  May 24  Comment 
OIL LONDON: Oil was poised to post its biggest weekly loss in more than a month, with Brent edging down towards US$102 per barrel yesterday - pressured by ample supply and a sluggish economic recovery that could dent demand for fuel. Brent...




 

This article is about investing in the commodity gold. For the article on the company with ticker GOLD, see Randgold Resources (GOLD). For other uses, see Gold (Disambiguation).

Gold is one of the most highly-sought after precious metals in the world. It is used in jewelry, electronics, and coinage. Gold is widely considered to be an effective hedge against inflation, which means that when the dollar depreciates, demand for gold increases. In addition, during times of economic and political uncertainty, the demand for Gold rises due to its high intrinsic value and relative stability. Moreover, the introduction of gold ETFs and the increasing wealth in emerging markets, such as China, India, and Latin America have contributed to rising demand for gold. While demand for gold has been rising, supply has been dropping as many of the top gold producing countries have had decreasing production over the past few years.

Gold has been used as money for more than 3,500 years as it doubles as a currency and a store of value. Gold is one of very few assets that is not the obligation of someone else. It has also proven to be a good hedge as inflation since the experiments with unbacked fiat money began in Europe and the USA in the 18th century.

Prices

Gold futures contracts are traded on the COMEX under ticker symbol GC and are delivered in January, February, April, June, August, October, and December of every year. (For more information on commodity tickers, check out the commodity ticker construction page.)

Investors Gold

A soft metal with a characteristic deep lustrous yellow or yellow-brown color. Au chemical symbol, [1] with the chemical element of atomic number 79, valued for use in jewelry and decoration, and to guarantee the value of currencies. The purest form of money, and the oldest, most durable. Gold, Aurum was already legal tender before the first coins. The oldest gold coins derive from the seventh century BC.

Investors use Gold as a store of value. Gold metal offers the appearance of capital appreciation compared to depreciating currencies. Gold has always had favorable liquidity, but Gold is sterile, it does not provide any current income. [1] Gold does not provide positive cash flow to the owner. Gold owners must pay to maintain, store, and insure Gold, which is an expense. On a cash flow basis Gold a liability, Gold costs you to own it. [2]

As an example, if returns were adjusted for inflation from 1802 to 2001. $1.00 invested in stocks would have returned $599,605.00 while bonds and bills would have returned $952.00 and $304.00. The results for investments in gold and the US dollar would have resulted in losses, since that $1.00 investment in gold would have been reduced to 98 cents and the US dollar only seven cents. [3]

Companies Who Benefit from Rising Gold Prices

Gold Companies

  • DRDGOLD (DROOY) is the fourth largest gold miner in South Africa. South Africa is the world's top gold producer after India.
  • Goldcorp (GG) is a gold mining company based in Canada that has the lowest cash costs of any tier 1 mining company. It is the 5th biggest gold producer.
  • Harmony Gold Mining (HMY) is the 5th largest gold producer in the world, is the largest gold producer in South Africa and also has mines in Papua New Guinea.

For a complete list of companies involved in the gold industry, see Gold Industry

Gold Exchange Traded Funds

Most gold ETFs buy gold as backing for the fund. [4]

Other Gold Exchange Traded Funds

High End Jewelry Companies

High end jewelers actually benefits from rising gold prices because as prices rise, gold jewelry becomes a more valuable and coveted option.[9]

Companies Who are Hurt by Rising Gold Prices

Low to Mid End Jewelry Companies

Low to mid end jewelry companies tend to suffer from increasing gold prices because the company's lower income clientel are less flexible to price changes.

Individual Consumers

In addition, individual consumers are hurt by the rise in gold prices as they are no longer able afford it. This is particularly true for cultures which rely on gold articles as a symbol or key aspect to ceremonies.

Historical Gold Prices

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Whether as the basis for the monetary unit of a country, or in its role in comparison to the currency price of silver, the history of gold price has long been a subject of great interest to both the scholar and the general public.

Below are five series for determining the value of gold price historically:

Gold Futures

References

  1. A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing by Burton Gordon Malkiel ISBN-10: 0393062457 pg359
  2. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki ISBN-10: 0446677450 pg61
  3. Equities: An Introduction to the Core Concepts (Mark Mobius Masterclass Series) ISBN-10: 0470821442 pg 16
  4. Have gold ETFs bottomed
  5. Wikipedia:Gold Exchange-Traded Fund
  6. Wikipedia:Gold Exchange-Traded Fund
  7. Wikipedia:Gold Exchange-Traded Fund
  8. Wikipedia:Gold Exchange-Traded Fund
  9. High Prices as Good as Gold in Jewelry Market
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