Monday, November 22, 2010

Gold or silver, which is the better investment?

Gold or silver, which is the better investment?

Gold or silver, which has the greatest investment opportunity? This is a very pertinent question that wise commodity investors should set to find out before deciding which investment commodity to trade on. The answer to the above question is dependent on ones level of information about silver and gold; what are the price trends of each commodity, the functions, and sourcing processes; these are some formative factors that determine the swing of the price of silver and gold and other commodities. The level of success in commodity investing is predicated by ones readiness and ability to learn. Below are some helpful tips; starting with the definition of gold and silver; the function, and why trade in them?

A Little Background Information on Gold

Gold is a powerful, natural resource. It is so powerful that at one time gold controlled the world economy. It is a precious metal occurring naturally somewhere in the earth’s crust as nugget, alluvial dust, and veins.  The use of gold dates way back in time to the prehistoric era; then it was respected due to its beauty and believed to have medicinal properties. It is malleable; easily shaped into any form, refined and melted under very severe heat, and solidified by adding alloys of copper, silver, baser elements etc. Gold or Au (chemical symbol) has diverse usages namely: jewelry, medicines, food and drinks, electronics etc.

A Little Background Information on Silver

Silver or the poor man’s gold as it is sometimes called is the second most used precious metal on the metal table after gold. It has a whitish, mysterious luster, very beautiful; the mysterious glare of silver creates this “the more you look, the more you love me” feeling. Like gold it is malleable, easily shaped to any form, calcified with alloys, has high thermal and electricity conductivity, and can be used for: jewelry, electronics, valuable silverware, table ware, clothing, photography, dentistry, optics, medical purposes as well as other uses. Like gold it is traded in the commodity market, and for 4000 years it was considered as a kind of money and used as a store of value, a condition that was later changed since silver standard ended, and it ceased to be issued as a legal tender.
From the above definition of silver and gold it is obvious that they share a lot of similar features. It makes one wonder why the demand and price of gold is higher than silver? Why is gold more valuable than silver, seeing that they share the same features?

Investment potential of gold and silver

Gold as a metal has reached its all time highs, as at 13th of October 2010 the price of gold stood at $1379/oz. According to professionals when a commodity has reached its full strength there is a tendency of dropping. So in other words gold has stretched to its limited, and like elastic that becomes strained and weak after having been stretched to its limits, gold is speculated to snap back to reality – so to speak.
In the case of silver speculations has it that the price of metal is still at its base in view of prevalent functions. This means that the current price of silver is at disequilibrium; silver is yet to be fully utilized.
Secondly silver has a higher industrial usage than gold. However, gold has a faster conversion rate; an investor is likely to sale gold coins faster than silver this therefore gives it an usual edge over gold.
The caution for investors is to always have his or her investment portfolio mixed with gold and silver plus other major stocks, with gold having the major share in the mix.

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