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Should I Invest In Gold

Blog Apr 7, 2014

The Reverse (Back) Of A 1928 Double Eagle Gold Coin. Design By Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

The Reverse (Back) Of A 1928 Double Eagle Gold Coin. Design By Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Perhaps you have been meaning to buy gold coins, or have been pondering buying gold bars online, but every time you come close to actually buying gold, you get cold feet. After all, gold is expensive. If you buy five one ounce gold bars online, that will cost you about $6500, even with gold being relatively low at around $1300 an ounce, If you buy five rare gold coins, those will cost substantially more. You have questions about buying gold, and whenever you consider picking up the phone to place an order with a rare gold coin dealer, or clicking the order button with your mouse to buy gold bars online, you ask yourself, “should I invest in gold?”

Should I Invest In Gold?

At ITM Trading, we answer this question for clients everyday. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes the answer is no. When you buy gold coins or gold bullion, or even if you buy gold bars online, you need to realize that gold is a long-term hold. With gold coins and gold bullion, you should be prepared to hold onto your gold for at least three to five years to realize a tidy profit. With rare gold coins, holding them for five to ten years is suggested. We tell our clients and perspective clients, that they need to have emergency funds available to cover unforeseen expenses that come along, because you don’t want to have to liquidate your gold holdings, possibly at a loss, to cover medical bills or car repairs or the like. If you don’t have long-term funds to put into the gold market, then owning gold bullion or buying rare coins is not right for you right now.

Many ITM Clients And Potential Clients Should Buy Gold Bullion And Rare Gold Coins
Once you have determined that you have funds that can be used tot buy gold bars or rare gold coins, perhaps that nagging question, “should I invest in gold?” pops into your head again. After all, buying gold coins or buying gold bars online is not exactly commonplace in this country, unlike China and India where it is somewhat to very unusual for anyone not to own gold. Americans have been taught to love paper investments and financial products over the last several decades, and this paper market is hard to break away from, and in some cases it is expensive to break away from when you consider the fees and taxes associated with closing or withdrawing from these accounts. One of the aspects of being a Senior Analyst or a Precious Metals Consultant at ITM Trading is being able to explain to Americans why they should own gold, and then explain the differences between owning gold bullion and gold coins and rare gold coins. Craig Griffin, Founder and President of ITM Trading, does his best to share with his staff and clients why they need to own gold. Craig interviews and follows the works of Richard Russell, Jim Rickards, and Lakshman Achuthan because all of these men are very well established and highly respected in their areas of expertise.

Richard Russell Of The Dow Theory Letters

Richard Russell Of The Dow Theory Letters

Craig Griffin, Founder and President of ITM Trading has spent years and years following and interviewing some of the brightest minds in the financial world in order to share the wisdom and knowledge he is able to glean either directly with his clients through his Market Updates, or with his staff, which in turn uses this information to help their clients and perspective clients choose to buy gold coins or gold bullion or rare gold coins by being well informed and educated in the ways of economics and marketplaces.

Craig Griffin Is A Longtime Student Of Richard Russell’s Writings
If you are not familiar with Richard Russell, you should be. Richard Russell has been writing one of the longest continually published newsletters focused on the stock markets in the United States. Russell is highly regarded, or in some cases, loathed, by those in the stock market. Richard Russell is a “gold bull”, that is he is very pro owning gold coins and gold bullion, and not necessarily in the paper or ETF form. Russell has followed the markets long enough to understand that they crash regularly, and that the stock markets become overvalued from time to time. He writes The Dow Theory Letters, and I suggest you get your hands on one and read it thoroughly to understand just how deep this man studies and understands the stock markets. He uses his unique interpretations and market indicators to spot long term and short term trends in the stock markets. Richard understands that now more than ever the governments and banks around the world control and influence the stock markets for their own gains. This is one reason he suggests, no, implores his readers to own gold coins and gold bullion in the physical form. When the markets crash, wealth is wiped out, never to return. Gold coins and gold bullion, along with rare gold coins, however, stay right where you put them, and more often than not, after the original financial shocks of a market crash, gold enjoys a significant upwards bounce because gold is seen as a financial safe haven because gold does not rely on any bank or government or company to redeem it for wealth, because gold is wealth.

Craig Griffin Regularly Cites Richard Russell In His Market Updates
Craig reads just about everything Richard Russell writes. Russell is getting older, however, and as he does, he tends to slow down a bit in his volume of writing, but his keen insights are still there. For instance, Russel has pointed out that the valuation of the S&P 500 has increased by 45%, however the profits of these companies have only increased by 5%. This in short means that the S&P 500 is overbought and overvalued, and therefore headed for a large downward correction. An uninformed investor in the S&P 500 may see the current levels of the market as a good thing and may continue to invest heavily in these companies. Richard Russell sees the current market levels as a big red flashing danger sign. Russel might suggest liquidating all or part of your S&P 500 holdings and diversifying into gold coins and gold bullion. Jim Rickards and Lakshman Achuthan would probably tend to agree.  “should I invest in gold?” So far the answer is Yes

Jim Rickards, Author Of Currency Wars

Jim Rickards, Author Of Currency Wars

We  explained a little bit about who Richard Russell is, and why he advocates owning gold coins and gold bullion, and why if you are invested in the S&P 500, right now might be a great time to diversify out of the stock markets and perhaps buy some gold coins and gold bullion, and consider adding some rare gold coins to your portfolio.

Who Is Jim Rickards, And Why Does He Suggest Owning Gold?

Of Richard Russell, Jim Rickards, and Lakshman Achuthan, Jim is perhaps the most visible and widely followed. Jim recently wrote the book “Currency Wars” and he has a new book due out in just a few days. Jim Rickards is also quite often interviewed on financial television and talk shows, and he is well known for his views that people need to own gold in gold bullion and gold coin form to protect themselves for the inevitable crash of the U.S. dollar. Jim has a quite remarkable past. He has been called upon by the U.S. government on more than one occasion. He helped negotiate the release of the American hostages from Iran back in the 1980’s, and more recently he was asked by Washington to participate in war games centered around financial warfare, or what Jim calls “currency wars”. The idea is that these days you don’t need troops or bombs to commit acts of war on other nations, nations can be attacked through the financial systems by currency and trade manipulations as well as other means. Jim was asked to play out several scenarios where the U.S. dollar was attacked through common currency war tactics, and in all the cases that were proposed, the U.S. dollar failed and crashed. When you consider that gold coins, gold bullion, and rare gold coins do not rely on governments, currencies, banks, or companies to redeem them for wealth, because gold is wealth, you can start to see why Jim Rickards suggests that people need to own gold coins and gold bullion to protect themselves from the inevitable crash of the U.S. dollar.

What Does Jim Rickards Know About The U.S. Dollar That You Don’t?
Perhaps Jim doesn’t know anything you don’t, but perhaps he has connected the dots a little further out in time and cycles than you have taken the time to. For instance, Jim Rickards understands that the U.S. dollar is a fiat currency, that is a currency that is backed by nothing but decree. Jim knows that all fiat currencies eventually fail and become worthless. Beyond this, Jim understands that the U.S. dollar is currently the world’s reserve currency. This basically means that all international trade is supposed to be conducted in U.S. dollars, and as long as this is the case, their is an artificial demand for the U.S. dollar, and this is a complicated but important subject. To continue reading about what Jim Rickards knows, and why he suggests owning gold coins and gold bullion, and why he answers “yes” to the question, “should I invest in gold?”

Jim Rickards is, and why he advocates that people should own gold coins and gold bullion as a way to protect themselves from the eventual crash of the U.S. dollar. Jim knows that the U.S. dollar is a fiat currency, as is backed by nothing other than government decree. Once other countries around the world lose faith in the dollar, they will cease to use it, and when that happens, they will trade out of the dollar, and whether they trade it for goods or other currencies will be irrelevant, those dollars will come flooding back into the United States, and hyperinflation will ensue. Hyperinflation is quite often the downfall of a fiat currencies, when hyperinflation happens, the currency in question buys less and less everyday. Companies, foreign countries, and citizens simultaneously have to begin moving out of that currency or face going broke and becoming destitute. Banks fail,and countries can no longer afford to conduct business. In short, everything except, gold coins, gold bullion, silver, and tangible items like food become worthless or nearly worthless. Jim sees these things happening around us everyday. China and Russia, two of the largest economies in the world, have begun to trade without using the U.S. dollar. Iran is selling oil for gold and other currencies, bypassing the currency of the United States. The U.S., meanwhile, is creating dollars at an astronomical rate for “Quantitative Easing” which is truly just a ploy to keep the stock markets artificially inflated and to keep Americans investing in what will turn out to be the biggest market crash in the history of the world.

What Jim Rickards Is Really Troubled By
Jim knows that there has never been an economy as large as the United States economy as close to financial collapse in the history of the world. The United States has gone from being the world’s largest creditor (one reason the U.S. dollar became the world reserve currency) to the world’s largest debtor. The U.S. is currently living the largest “riches to rags” story ever to be seen, and this has all happened in the last forty five years, when Richard Nixon removed the U.S. from the last vestiges of the gold standard that this country was founded upon, allowing the dollar to float against gold and other major currencies. Sadly, in this case, Jim understands that that old saying, “the bigger they are the harder they fall” will apply to the U.S. dollar, and unfortunately perhaps to the United States as a whole. Jim also understands that there are countries, companies, and entities out there that stand to gain quite substantially from the demise of the dollar, and they are working towards this end. Just as even the Giant Redwoods in California live for centuries but eventually topple, so will go the U.S. dollar.

Lakshman Achuthan Of Economic Cycle Research Institute

Lakshman Achuthan Of Economic Cycle Research Institute

We talked about how Jim Rickards sees things. Earlier we looked at Richard Russell’s findings and views of the current state of affairs regarding the U.S. markets. Now we will look at Lakshman Achuthan, and what he sees and derives about the U.S. economy, and what he thinks about gold coins and gold bullion.

Who Is Lakshman Achuthan, And What Does He Do?
Lakshman Achuthan is the Co-Founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, or ECRI for short. This company is rather unique. They use several proprietary and common metrics to recognize trends in the economy. These trends identify cycles, and cycles by definition, repeat themselves. Companies and even governments pay large fees to ECRI for the information they uncover, because in the financial and economic realms being a little ahead of competitors can yield substantial profits, while being just a step behind your competitors can bring substantial failure.

ECRI’s Claim To Fame, And Derision
One thing that Lakshman Achuthan and ECRI do that bring them fame as well as constant scrutiny, is call recessions and depressions in the U.S. economy. Technically, there is a division of the U.S. government that officially decides and then states when the U.S. economy enters or exits from recession or depression, but the downside is that this arm of the government has historically failed to identify an oncoming recession, and has often stated that “the coast is clear” right before a major market malfunction. This happened in 2008, right before the sub-prime mortgage debacle, the stock market crash, and a huge rash of bank failures. In fact, this government entity often does not identify a recession until it is over, and by this time the information is economically useless and worthless. For this reason, and because ECRI and Lakshman Achuthan have called every recession without fail for the last several years and years, they are lauded as an authority on the American economy and the cycles that it follows.

What Lakshman Achuthan Is Saying Right Now
Lakshman says that the United States is currently in a recession, perhaps leading to a depression, and he says this has been the case for more than a year. In a nutshell, he has many detractors that say he is wrong, because the official factors that would define a recession do not support his call. Lakshman basically counters that the government numbers that define a recession are largely inflated when they are released, and then revised substantially downward at a later date. He also counters with a strong argument that the huge amount of Quantitative Easing has artificially propped up the markets and kept them from the inevitable crash, and that these actions are only going to make things worse. Lakshman is less vocal about owning gold bullion and gold coins than Richard Russel and Jim Rickards, though he does publicly state that owning gold, and therefore gold coins and gold bullion, is a hedge against market and currency collapse.
 

A Loose 1928 Saint-Gaudens $20 Gold Coin

A Loose 1928 Saint-Gaudens $20 Gold Coin

Why Does Craig Griffin Pay Such Close Attention To Lakshman Achuthan?
There is a strong reason that Craig Griffin follows the work of Lakshman Achuthan and ECRI so closely. Gold, or the price of gold, and therefore the price of gold coins and gold bullion and to a lesser extent the price of rare gold coins, reacts to recessions in the U.S. economy. For instance, during the crash of 2008 and the ensuing recession, gold fell precipitously with the markets but stabilized in the $700 an ounce range, then gold coins and gold bullion rocketed to a high of $1900 an ounce within several months. This type of market action can produce substantial gains for an investor. If you were not aware of this price action in the gold bullion and gold coin markets, then now you are. Perhaps this knowledge will help you answer the question, “should I invest in gold?” Lakshman has good reason and good data to support his recession call, and quite often when he calls a recession, there are others that say there is no way the U.S. could possibly be in a recession, and they are proven wrong time after time.

What Happens When You Combine The Works Of Richard Russell, Jim Rickards, And Lakshman Achuthan?
Richard Russel says that the markets are overbought and overvalued, and that Quantitative Easing, or the Fed’s constant pumping of money into the markets is to blame for artificially inflating the markets. Jim Rickards sees market forces around the world working against the very dollar that supports the United States and the United States stock markets’ and currency. Lakshman Achuthan sees a current recession that may end up being a full blown depression. I would surmise that all three of these men can imagine a perfect storm forming that might just cause countries, individuals, and companies around the world to abandon the U.S. dollar. If this happens, as I noted previously, we will have hyperinflation in this country. Richard Russel, Jim Rickards, and Craig Griffin are constantly on record saying that gold coins and gold bullion are one tool to protect your financial welfare should this happen. Rare gold coins will also be a wealth preservation tool in this financial scenario. For more information on Jim Rickards, see this interview. For more information on Lakshman Achuthan, see this interview. For more information on owning gold coins, rare gold coins, and gold bullion, contact an ITM Trading representative at 1.888.OWN.GOLD.

Thumbnail Photo We believe that everyone deserves a properly developed strategy for financial safety.

Lynette Zang

Chief Market Analyst, ITM Trading

Sources & References In This Article

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