Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Timing the Gold Price Bottom

Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013 Jul 16, 2013 - 04:15 PM GMT

By: Casey_Research

Commodities

By Louis James, Chief Metals & Mining Investment Strategist

An interesting thing about the uptick in gold prices over the last couple days is the number of people asking me if I think gold has bottomed. This is somewhat amusing, since we all know that no one can time a market, and the questions are coming from my peers—professionals who should know better.


This reminds me of Doug Casey's famous story about how he bottom-ticked the market in the 1970s: He was a broker at the time and put together an order for a client named Elmer who later reneged on the purchases. So Doug followed his own advice and bought the shares for himself. This happened to be the very day the market bottomed.

Note that Doug did not know that it was the bottom of the market when he made those purchases. He did know that they were good stocks at great prices—the ingredients of any smart speculation.

Another story: Rick Rule of Sprott Global fame formed a partnership to invest in junior resource stocks in 1998 and, undeterred by the "nuclear winter" that gripped the sector for two more years, formed another in 2000. Gold would eventually bottom in 2001, so Rick was clearly early.

Note that being early did not matter; both ventures ended up returning roughly 20:1, and investors made a killing. Rather than fretting about timing the market, Rick simply focused on "buying low."

Key takeaway: not only can nobody time the market, those who have made fantastic amounts of money speculating in this sector didn't even try. They made money buying when valuations were ridiculously low… and simply waiting to be right.

Most people only have the courage to do this with money they can afford to lose—which explains why we call my newsletter the Casey International Speculator and not Casey Safe Investments.

What would we do if safety was our top investment priority? Well, as I wrote after Bernanke's mere suggestion that the Fed might scale back a little on its money printing, it is now plain as day to anyone with their eyes open that "the emperor has no clothes." Gold may take some time to consolidate and rally, but that doesn't make Wall Street a safe bet. We think the safest portfolio allocation under present circumstances would be 50% gold, 50% cash.

But preserving wealth is not our only goal here at Casey Research. For many of us, readers and colleagues alike, it's not even our top priority: we want to make money—lots of money. And it is our view that the recent market volatility is evidence that our projections of more economic trouble ahead were and are correct. That means our overall strategy is correct and remains intact, which in turn implies that the current selloff is a buying opportunity. Hence, we still recommend our basic allocation model of 33% cash, 33% gold, and 33% equities that should do well in times of crisis.

So, while no one can say when the bottom for gold will be—not until it's obvious to all in our rearview mirrors—I can tell you that there are great speculative picks available now that offer the same potential as Doug's picks back in the mid-'70s correction and Rick's back during mining's nuclear winter.

I for one plan to make the most of what will follow the bottom, as surely as day follows night. I have bought shares on the previous downturn, so I bought bullion in response to the most recent selloff. As an anecdotal aside, I found that premiums are up and supply remains an issue in my local market.

Some of my fellow editors here at Casey Research have been placing stink bids on good companies. It's a nice way to redeploy profits from those GLD "gold insurance" puts that worked out so well for us when gold dropped. Note that this does not mean prices can't or won't go even lower in the near term. All I'm saying is that some of us here at CR are happy to add to holdings at today's prices.

But if this is the bottom, won't we miss the best prices in ten years? Absolutely. The questions I'm getting about this suggest a shift in the risk-reward perception in the industry—perhaps a new willingness among professionals to get back in to the market. That could become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the next leg up.

Or gold could just get whacked again the next time Bernanke opens his mouth and pretends the government has the courage to do any of the right things.

This brings us full circle. We don't need to tick the exact bottom of the market; the second-best prices in ten years will still be pretty darned cheap—and much lower-risk. It will take time for such a skittish market to believe the bottom is in. There should be plenty of time to take advantage of good deals.

So let me be clear here:

  • I am not calling a bottom.
     
  • I am saying that we have opportunities worth taking advantage of now, regardless of exactly where the bottom is—just as Doug has done many times over the years.

That is not a prediction, but an assessment of the situation.

If you have cash to speculate with—if you're still building your portfolio during this correction—don't be afraid to "buy low."

Of course, there's more to earning outsized profits from precious metals investing than just buying low. Knowing which of the juniors are most likely to have a solid resource and a team capable of developing it—or to score big by being bought by a major company—is a vitally important element of successful speculation. You can do the research and due diligence yourself... or you can give Casey International Speculator a risk-free, 90-day trial. Not only will you learn our recent recommendations—including "best buys" and price guidance—but you'll have access to every back issue, as well as free reports for subscribers and our resource dictionary. Learn more and sign up today... before this opportunity of a lifetime slips away.

© 2013 Copyright Casey Research - All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Casey Research Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in