Downhill Roller Coaster

Wow…does the pit of your stomach feel like you’ve just ridden a roller coaster down a steep hill?

Take a look at the 30 day metals’ charts below:

First, there’s gold:

Kitco 30 day gold chart 05212010

 Next, look at silver:

Kitco 30 day silver chart 05212010

Then platinum:

Kitco 30 day platinum chart 05212010

 Last, there’s palladium:

Kitco 30 day palladium chart 05212010

Now, let’s look at a table of the high and low figures for the month with the last trade (pulled around 6:00 pm) for today:

  30 day high 30 day low May 21 Last Difference between
High and Low
Gold $1,241.25 $1,133.75 $1,177.00 8.7%
Silver $19.64 $17.50 $17.64 10.9%
Platinum $1,752.00 $1,510.00 $1,505.00 14.1%
Palladium $571.00 $415.00 $434.00 27.3%

 

Perhaps that sinking feeling is justified, however investing in the metals cannot be an eyes-glued-to-the-market venture. Yes, you do need to keep aware of your investments, but reaction to market fluctuations should be done with caution.

Many dealers talk about their customers who buy high and sell low. That’s not the way to invest in the market. Ideally, you want to buy low and sell high – obviously.

But, if you buy at a peak number and panic-sell when the market hiccups, you will – at best – make only small profits and will most likely lose money.

Calm down, that pit of the stomach feeling will fade. This week’s political and economic news, both domestically and globally, influenced the markets dramatically – the metals, the stocks and the currencies.

If you look at the table above, the metals had started back upward with the exception of platinum which, in all likelihood, will as well.

And, you might want to do some research to determine if now is a good time to buy before the metals increase again. As the economics and the politics continue to tumble the metals could continue the roller coaster ride with as many uphills as downhills.

But, remember, no one’s crystal ball can accurately predict the future. There are many very educated people from whom you can learn much, but even the most widely knowledgeable cannot tell you what will happen with the markets – metals, stocks or currencies.