“I'm going to be looking at my gold and silver price outlooks in 2012 and I'm very bullish,” he says. “Basically, I see a continuation of the trend that we've had for the past ten or eleven years. Gold is up eleven years in a row and the expectation is that 2012 is going to be the twelfth year in a row that gold has risen in terms of the US Dollar.”
Monetary Uncertainty
The rise in the gold price is, he believes, driven by monetary uncertainty, which shows itself in different ways. Currency fluctuation is one thing that causes people to move into gold. For example, two years ago when the Pound was dropping against the Euro, his company had a lot of business coming out of the UK. People saw gold and silver as a way to preserve purchasing power when the currency was losing value against other national currencies because of the movements in the exchange rate. Subsequent to that, crude oil was up around $130-140 a barrel, inflationary pressures were building and people were buying precious metals because of that.
From then on, James says, it got worse with financial uncertainty in Europe, banking crises and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which created a lot of uncertainty in the financial world. “Gold and silver are a way to protect your purchasing power from that,” he explains. “The bottom line is, whenever there are monetary problems, people will move into the precious metals. Given the fact that all these problems we've been dealing with have not yet been solved, one has to reasonably conclude that precious metals are going to see a lot of buying this year.”
The lull in the price of gold and silver during the first week of January will, he believes, be the only lull of the year. From now on, it's going to be onwards and upwards over the next several months. He thinks we're going to see $2000 in gold and silver over $50 in the not too distant future. His belief is that both those levels will occur in the first half of this year and he wouldn't be surprised to see gold in the high $2000s or even $3000 before this year is over. Looking at the metals, he reckons they are starting to move exponentially higher, indicating to him that this is going to be a big year on the upside.
Buy Physical Metals
His recommendation, which he's made consistently for quite some time, is to accumulate physical gold and physical silver. Investors should make the accumulation of precious metals their savings, always having to save for the future. The best way to preserve and enhance purchasing power, he reckons, is by accumulating gold and silver. He says: “Don't buy paper gold or silver, buy the real thing. Buy it yourself or have someone do it for you.”
Having someone do it for you is where GoldMoney comes in because it's exactly the service it offers to its clients. However, James is insistent that, whichever organization you choose to handle your precious metal purchase and storage, it has to be done properly: “You have to make sure the insurances and integrity are there, that your gold and silver are safe, which is one of the services we provide in GoldMoney. Follow the types of things we do. Make sure you get audits, that the vaults are insured and that you have documentation to confirm that when you store it with someone else, your metal is safe.”
The GoldMoney service provides a convenient, economical and, most importantly, safe way to buy physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium. “There are a number of advantages,” explains James. “One is that we operate with vaults in London, Zurich and Hong Kong so you can buy gold or silver wherever you live in the world and have it stored for you in those locations. The most important thing is that we provide the insurances of integrity that your gold and silver are safe. We're presently safeguarding about $2 billion of metals owned by 22,000 customers in over 100 different countries around the world. People like it because they find it convenient and they know it's safe.”
Holding Physical Metal
Although the normal arrangement is that precious metals are stored safely in GoldMoney's vaults, all clients can take physical possession of those metals if they so wish. This part of the service is provided by Baird & Co., a major UK refiner that produces and supplies gold bars in 100 gram or one kilogram weights. These bars are dispatched to clients wherever they live and GoldMoney will also buy metals from clients.
James says: “We’re constantly making a market 24/7 in gold and silver. If you want to liquidate your precious metals, we will buy them back from you at spot with no fee and wire the proceeds to your bank account anywhere in the world. That means you have very quick, instantaneous liquidity without any fees if you want to get out of the precious metals because you need the money or, for whatever reason, take a short term view and liquidate. In those types of aspects, the convenience that we offer at GoldMoney is very useful for a lot of people around the world.”
More information about GoldMoney is available at its website (http://www.goldmoney.com). Anyone can open up a holding for free, giving them an opportunity to look around and see if they like the service provided. If they do, there's no minimum or maximum transaction value. The aim is to make it simple to purchase a metal so people can determine if it's a way of helping them to diversify their precious metals holding.
“I think that's a key point,” concludes James. “I see gold and silver as the bedrock asset in a portfolio. You don't want to take risks with that. One of the best ways to make sure they're safe is to diversify where and how you hold it. I think GoldMoney is helping for most people in that regard.”