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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Rono, post: 4613006, member: 6492&quot;]Hi jacksbike,</p><p><br /></p><p>Welcome to the Monkey House.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Lets start at the beginning. EVERYONE should have some small percentage of their wealth in precious metals.&nbsp; Let&#039;s say 3-10%.&nbsp; This is an investment.&nbsp; Above this amount is speculation.&nbsp; Both are fine as long as you keep them separate in your own mind.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The choices are gold or silver.&nbsp; Both are good and both are different and both are related.&nbsp; One comparison used over the years has been the gold/silver ratio.&nbsp; Historically it was 1/17.&nbsp; Currently, it&#039;s 1/98.&nbsp; What does this mean?&nbsp; WTF do I know in this age of bullion ETFs.&nbsp; What I do know is that from an historical perspective, silver is undervalued relative to gold.&nbsp; One tactic is to buy both metals in ratio and adjust your purchases as the ratio changes.&nbsp; feh. Works for me.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The buying of precious metals pretty much covers the squares in commerce.&nbsp; You pay a premium for name brand top shelf stuff like American Silver Eagles or in plain vanilla bullion rounds or ingots - Engelhard or Johnson Matthey . . . or you can buy junk silver for a smaller premium.&nbsp; The reason I prefer the good stuff is fungibility.&nbsp; I can sell it anywhere in Christendom.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>You also get a discount for buying in bulk.&nbsp; A roll of Eagles is cheaper than an individual coin times 20.&nbsp; I 100 oz ingot is cheaper per oz than 100 1 oz ingots.&nbsp; Lastly, there is the Vig or vigorish.&nbsp; In this situation this the spread between wholesale and retail.&nbsp; Figure 20% or so.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Physical vs. paper.&nbsp; Again, I want the real stuff and don&#039;t trust the bullion ETFs.&nbsp; I use them and own SLV currently, but only for shits and grins and to play the market.&nbsp; Cripes, you can put away a tube of silver eagles for about $2500 but a tube of gold Eagles is smaller and can be stashed in your box of oatmeal and is pushing $40K.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Bullion vs. miners.&nbsp; Most pm mutual funds consist of mining stocks and NOT bullion.&nbsp; A few exceptions like CEF but most are miners.&nbsp;&nbsp; Bullion and the miners &#039;track&#039;&nbsp; each other but not in lockstep because they are traded in different markets.&nbsp; It&#039;s a different variation on a theme.&nbsp; I personally like playing the junior silver miners for giggles but I already have my stash of the real stuff.</p><p><br /></p><p>Shop around and dollar cost average your purchases continuing until you have a sufficient holding that YOU determine.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>and good luck,</p><p><br /></p><p>rono[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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