The Best Time To Sell Gold

The stock market has been volatile, to say the least, over the last several months or so.

As an investment, gold has been no different. If you’re holding onto your gold jewelry, waiting for the absolute perfect time to sell, you may have missed your best opportunity when gold eclipsed $1,000 an ounce not long ago.

Will we see gold over $1,000 an ounce again? Now that it’s under $900 an ounce, will it continue to drop? Here are some things to think about for those who take the risk of trying to time the market.

1. Gold Generally Benefits During Tough Economic Times

We use the word “generally” because the tough times we are in now seem to break all rules. Typically, governments across the globe will infuse money into their economy as an attempt to turn things around, thus causing inflation. By nature, both inflation and deflation tend to drive up the price of gold.

As mentioned, these times tend to break all rules. While the perfect storm seems to be in place for those selling gold, it’s also a terrible time for the retail gold industry. Demand is down for gold jewelry. This negative has weighted down any possible astronomical rise in the gold investment.

We are in tough times now, but are things turning around? If they are, we may not see $1,000 an ounce again anytime soon.

2. Gold, as a Stable Investment, is a Safe Haven

One of the most attractive aspects of gold as an investment is that it’s stable. Investors buy it as a “safe haven” during tough economic times because it is one of the few investments with minimal downside. Along those lines, even when the economy turns around gold is seen as a good, low-risk investment to balance out a portfolio. The price of gold will drop some during these times, but the price of gold does not have the peaks and valleys that riskier investments may have. Over the past few years, gold has held steady between $700 and $1,000 an ounce – not much of a swing considering most people have less than one ounce of gold in their jewelry to sell.

3. The Price of Gold Goes Up When the Dollar Goes Down

The price of gold and the dollar have always been tied closely. After all, it is gold that the value of the dollar is intended to represent. Initially, paper money was introduced as a receipt for gold so that traders did not need to deal with it as a currency.

Therefore, it should not be a surprise that gold and the dollar tend to have an inverse relationship. While this is similar to the point that gold does well in tough economic times, these two are tied much more closely. A good example is the result of the US government printing more money. When this happens, the value of the dollar is watered down – or, in simpler terms, it then takes more dollars to equal an ounce of gold.

Predicting the value of the dollar (and therefore, the value of gold) can be done on a day to day basis as the government makes announcements about printing money or other inflationary decisions. But this simply isn’t realistic on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis.

4. When Do You NEED to Sell Gold?

In the end, the best time to sell gold is when you need money. The points above are reasons why gold is always a good sell. The amount you will gain or lose by timing or mistiming your sell will recently in minimal difference. Gold is stable, and will always provide a good return.