Is gold the safe investment commodity choice in 2021?

Expert gold investment return picks for 2021 : People in this world can be divided broadly into two categories, one includes the people who settle with whatever they have and the remaining are the people who don’t settle but fulfil their dreams and needs one way or the other. The approach for the latter group can be described by the statement that it is either my way or the high way and this is a great optimal attitude as it keeps one motivated to work and achieve all the goals and be able to buy all the luxuries of life. Well, a majority of Indian population lives on a fixed income and couple that with the fixed monthly expenditure, there is always almost a fixed amount of savings left which is really not enough to buy the luxuries and live life to the fullest.

Whether it is the tensions in the Middle East, Africa or elsewhere, it is becoming increasingly obvious that political and economic uncertainty is another reality of our modern economic environment. For this reason, investors typically look at gold as a safe haven during times of political and economic uncertainty. Why is this? Well, history is full of collapsing empires, political coups, and the collapse of currencies. During such times, investors who held gold were able to successfully protect their wealth and, in some cases, even use the commodity to escape from all of the turmoil. Consequently, whenever there are news events that hint at some type of global economic uncertainty, investors will often buy gold as a safe haven.

Alf Field has been called the “world’s best gold analyst.” He is well known for his many spot-on predictions in the precious metals market and these are some of his determinations regarding the future price of gold: “In the 1970’s bull market, gold increased from a low of $35 to a peak of $850, a massive 24.3 times the low price. If the current bull market was to be of the same order, then one could project an ultimate peak of $6,221(gold’s low price in the current cycle of $256 x 24.3). Field outlined in an article back in August 2003 his conviction, which he referred to again in his concluding November 2008 article on the subject of Elliott Wave and the gold price, “that the world, and especially the USA, was heading for a major financial crisis that would be so powerful that it would overwhelm all other factors [which] I referred to as the ‘Big Kahuna’ crisis. I anticipated that the Big Kahuna would give rise to the risk of a systemic meltdown, which would result in the authorities ‘throwing money at problems’, bailing out all the banks and large corporations that got into trouble.

The reasons for gold’s importance in the modern economy centers on the fact that it has successfully preserved wealth throughout thousands of generations. The same, however, cannot be said about paper-denominated currencies. To put things into perspective, consider the following example: In the early 1970s, one ounce of gold equaled $35.8? Let’s say that at that time, you had a choice of either holding an ounce of gold or simply keeping the $35. They would both buy you the same things, like a brand new business suit or fancy bicycle. However, if you had an ounce of gold today and converted it for today’s prices, it would still be enough to buy a brand new suit, but the same cannot be said for the $35. In short, you would have lost a substantial amount of your wealth if you decided to hold the $35 as opposed to the one ounce of gold because the value of gold has increased, while the value of a dollar has been eroded by inflation. See even more details on investing in gold.

Much of the supply of gold in the market since the 1990s has come from sales of gold bullion from the vaults of global central banks. This selling by global central banks slowed greatly in 2008. At the same time, production of new gold from mines had been declining since 2000. According to BullionVault.com, annual gold-mining output fell from 2,573 metric tons in 2000 to 2,444 metric tons in 2007 (however, according to Goldsheetlinks.com, gold saw a rebound in production with output hitting nearly 2,700 metric tons in 2011.) It can take from five to 10 years to bring a new mine into production. As a general rule, reduction in the supply of gold increases gold prices.

Simply put, gold futures are contracts to buy and sell gold at a certain point in time. Each contract represents a certain amount of gold, and depending on the specifications can pay out in either a dollar amount or the physical gold. Gold futures can be very large, making this a strategy best suited to investors with the capital to purchase high-valued contracts. There are also options on gold futures to consider. This provides investors the option to purchase a futures contract for a preset price at a certain point in time. Options can help buyers leverage their initial investment, though they are required to pay the underlying value of the gold to fully own the option. Both gold futures and options are considered to be volatile — making them more difficult to break into and manage when compared to other forms of gold investments.