Buy low.
The problem with amateurs buying commodities, like gold, is they tend to buy when the price is up and excitement is high then sell when the market is falling or stagnant and full of doom and gloom. That is exactly what you don't want to do - Buy High Sell Low.
If you can resist that very human impulse you will buy when there is blood in the streets (horrible market conditions - like now) and sell when the hype of big profits in a rising market are being shouted out everywhere.
Part of being an amateur investor is believing there is a bottom or a top to any given market. The exact points those bottoms and tops might occur become the focus point for amateurs. To the point they become hypnotized and are afraid to make a move either way. No person can predict the exact top or bottom consistently. The key is to:
Buy Low Sell High.
Forget the bottom or the top and realize that right now the price of gold is very low.
BUY
When the price becomes unimaginably high should you sell? The thing with gold as a commodity is, unlike wheat or pork bellies, it doesn't shrink, burn or rot. The gold you buy today will be exactly the same when your great grandchildren hold it. Unlike a 401k, stocks or a bundle of paper dollars gold will still have value in the future.
This brings me to my theory of gold for the common man. If you can afford to buy gold you can afford to keep it for a rainy day - no matter what the market prices are. Unlike modern fiat money, gold will be there in generations to come, steady, compact, beautiful, divisible, portable, rare and valuable. The ultimate form of savings.
On the other hand if you are considering gold as an investment to make a profit - I'm not a prophet and neither are those folks who try to convince you gold is going up in value. Buy some pork bellies, everybody likes bacon and we all have to eat.
And there you have the market according to Barry. With that and $1.25 you can get a cup of cheap lukewarm coffee.
Heavy Pans
