For many years, the conventional wisdom said that people should be investing their money in the stock market. This made sense on the surface. After all, investing money in the stock market has historically provided a good rate of return over the long term, and it statistically appeared to be a better place to put your money than simply stuffing it away in the bank. A lot of people took this advice, and then found that over the last couple of years these investments have largely cratered- taking their savings and their investments with down with them. Many people have learned that it’s not a good idea to keep their money sitting in the bank, but also that it’s not always a good idea to keep their money in the stock market. This means there are a lot of people who are looking for a great place to invest their money in a somewhat unconventional way. Gold provides such a place.
Now, gold doesn’t necessarily have all of the benefits of other forms of investing. For example, gold doesn’t produce dividends. A dividend is a regular payment that an investor receives (often quarterly or annually) that corresponds to how much of the stock they own. So if you own a stock that pays dividends, than you will receive a regular payment for those stocks that you own, while still maintaining ownership. So essentially, these are forms of investment that pay you money without you having to sell them.
This isn’t true for all stocks, but there are plenty out there which provide dividends. Gold doesn’t pay dividends, and only pays you when you sell it.
Gold also is a tangible product, which can be difficult for some people to deal with. There are those who enjoy the fact that they actually own something when they trade gold, but buying and selling a physical product does come with more logistical issues than buying and selling virtual pieces of paper. Many people solve this problem by treating gold like any other investment by simply trading certificates of gold ownership instead of actual pieces of bullion.
Of course, the tangible nature of gold is one of its main selling points. This is true whether you are physically storing your own gold or trading it online. A physical product is more solid and stable than buying and selling virtual ownership, and there are even some people who trade in gold who like to store the gold themselves so that they have currency on hand in a worst-case-scenario system collapse situation. While this is a little paranoid, there is a certain appeal to having your assets tangibly on hand at all times.
Overall it’s the security of gold that people really like when they trade in it. There is the security of trading something tangible, but there is also the security of knowing that you are investing in a supremely stable form of currency. Gold has been valued for millennia, and it has proven that even in modern times it has a relatively stable price- especially compared to stocks and the like. If you are looking for a great, simple, stable, and profitable place to invest your money, than you should learn more about trading gold.