Hey Dougster, How About Silver?

I have some gold miners in my retirement account. I know farmerart and Che like gold as well.

I think the story AGAINST it is so compelling (should get killed by rising rates) that it will probably do well. :-)

I'm considering getting back into silver for similar reasons (I also sold my trade silver a while back for quite a profit). Honestly though, I'll probably do it because I like to hoard shiny things and not because I think it's a worthwhile investment strategy.

@Che: I don't think I would follow anyone's advice by itself, but people can make intelligent comments that can help me arrive at a decision. My real question isn't IF, but 'at what price'. $16 an ounce seems like an upper boundary. If it went to $10 an ounce like it was when I started buying silver, that's a no brainer. How much lower could it go? Thing is, I doubt we'll see $10.

I always like to have some physical gold handy when I travel just in case the local currency collapses.

IMO, buy silver at $15 and buy gold at $1,100. Sell half (or buy more) on any subsequent price swings exceeding 10% of wherever you started.

For example, if you buy $20,000 silver at $15, sell $10,000 if it hits $16.50 or buy another $10,000 if it hits $13.50.

Precious metals should not exceed 10% or 15% of your portfolio. Too risky otherwise.

Gold prices tend to spike wildly when large numbers of investors (erroneously) perceive of it as a "safe haven." If interest rates spike while the stock market is correcting sharply, I wouldn't be surprised if gold doesn't spike temporarily. Be nimble: get in, get profit, get out.

I won't make an investment decision because someone here recommended one but I might make the opposite decision if they did and were very excited about. For example when RickyBoy has been most vocal about how bad stock ticker RICK is those have always been good times to buy.

Silver is just gold on meth, IME. And gold itself is always a commodity on crack to begin with.

I don't view gold as an investment. I see it as a hedge against the collapse of organized, civilized society.

I have traded shares of gold companies many times over the last 40 years, almost always losing money. I have been buying gold coins for those same 40 years, accumulating a tidy stash and never selling even a single one of those coins.

Gold is an attractive metal to one's eyes. Periodically I drag out my stash of coins and just play with them; feel them run through my fingers; let them dazzle my eyes as they gleam in the light.

'Barbarous relic' it may be, I am not ashamed of my peasant-like fascination with gold. Its allure is powerful.

farmerart: I'm the same as you, but with silver. Plus I was "lucky" enough to realize at $9 an oz. in the 1990's that it was time to buy. I bought a lot, and sold it all at around $37. So I'm keen to make another killing! LOL Gold is too nebulous for me because I have no idea on the floor. Silver cannot get much cheaper than it is now, but buying at $16 and starting a scale down buy at $13-4 is a big difference. No one but me can make this call, but I see silver over $20, maybe a lot more over, before I die from old age.