The price of precious metals are well positioned to remain at historic highs.  Citizens of Baton Rouge are increasingly taking advantage of these market conditions by cashing in their broken, used, unwanted, or scrap gold, silver, and platinum.  Many people in the Baton Rouge area are amazed by the amount of precious metals the own—many of which they did not even know they had or they had forgotten about. Among some of the gold, silver, and platinum items that our clients have sold recently include: jewelry, sterling silverware, watches, coins, and bars.  Many people are just now starting to realize that they have hundreds or thousands of dollars in items that they have not used in years.

Gold started an impressive run from around the 1200$ level all the way up to the 1900$ mark. Then the metal took a 350$ hit and has since rebounded to around the 1700$ level.  Moves in the price of silver have been even more extreme than those in gold. Trading around 20$ a year ago, silver took a massive leap up by more than doubling near the 50$ mark. Then the metal crashed over 33% to the 30$ level in just a couple of days.  After the crash silver started to slowly creep back up into to 40$ range only to crash once again to around the 30$ mark. Now the metal continues to trade in the lower 30’s and is waiting for some price direction from the industrial sector. Platinum has behaved much different than the monetary metals. While platinum maintained its historical average with gold (trading higher than the yellow metal) for much of the past 11 year bull market, a few months back gold decoupled from platinum and began to trade higher.  Now platinum is trading around the 1600$ level—proving that it is not quite the metal that gold is during the current times. As the citizens of Baton Rouge consider selling their broken, used, or unwanted gold, silver, or platinum many look to the precious metal’s extreme volatility over the past year.  Our clients that visit our CitiPlace location off of Corporate Blvd tend to think that prices are going to maintain their current levels and not experience as much volatility as compared to the last few years.  After the most recent corrections, our company experiences some panic selling of both gold and silver, and as prices re-corrected up, another round of high volume selling occurred.  These are interesting time for investors in precious metals, and as always, we  feel that hard commodities are  and will remain a safe harbor during uncertain times.

Gold and Silver’s Position in a Volatile Time

Recent market volatility for U.S. and European stocks has not been felt in the two big metals.  Both gold and silver have remained a stable investment in the past few weeks as investors pull back from the uncertain financial markets.  Silver prices have risen, and gold is holding steady.  Economic activity is one of the major driving factors that drives the price of silver because of its many industrial uses, and with world markets contracting some investors expect to see further pull backs from silver.  On the other hand,  many investors think that the “poor man’s gold” will not drop as dramatically as other global economic indicators.  Gold prices dropped dramatically from highs near the $1,900 an ounce level into the $1,600’s with investors fleeing to the dollar as Europe questions the future of the Euro, however, the yellow metal has leveled out to a steady rebound with less dramatic swings in daily price changes.  Silver also fluctuated from highs at or around $50 to lows around the $26 dollar level.  Silver’s swings were due in part to arbitrary changes in margin requirements by the major exchanges, and also by a perceived decrease in global demand.  Since rebounding from its recent lows, silver has remained fairly stable in the low to mid $30’s per ounce.

Local Louisiana Perspective

Those who are selling gold and silver to the precious metal buyers in Baton Rouge have expressed their concerns about the often discussed bubble in metals, and are increasingly positioned to cash in their investments.   In general, many individuals in Louisiana that have purchased gold or silver as an investment, or those who are holding surplus or broken jewelry have experienced a fair increase in their holdings over the last few years.  Feedback from our customers in the Baton Rouge area is somewhat balanced between those who think prices are still on the rise and those who are eager to sell before prices take a tumble.  Given the relative stability in both metals throughout a highly volatile market, prices may continue to remain fairly constant relative to the stock market or even real estate.