Gold And Silver Prices

Traevin,
Buy at Coin Shows and Craigslist, sell at Coin Shows and Craigslist.

I have to admit that it is a lot more difficult to get enthused about stock investing in light of recent events. Still, the mutual funds that I own are making 8-9% a year, which is not terrible in this market. They have a place in our portfolio, although certainly not the only one. Like most on here, I do like silver a lot but also gold. I have a small investment in the PPLT physical platinum ETF. No, it is not a SHTF scenario investment but at less than $10k it is not a life-changer if things go badly.

The thing that bothers me most about the US and world economies is the derivatives market. It is HUGE and exceptionally dangerous, IMHO. It has the capacity to destroy any national economy and the world economy too. Who gave these bankers that kind of financial power? It is primarily unregulated and makes me feel as if it is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room that is being ignored by governments while they fret over the small stuff that cannot destroy financial systems around the globe. JPM all by itself, for example, is on the hook for about $80T (yes, TRILLION) dollars worth of this junk. If only a tiny fraction of this does not go their way, they are instantly bankrupt... and so is every other financial institution connected to them. It is a juggling act for sure and those little round things they are juggling are filled with nitro.

Why buy stocks when the gubmint has shown you have no control over its value? You bought GM, too bad, we're saying you lost everything. Stock A fails, but stock B gets bailed out.

Totally agree, Traevin, and I do not think that this "oversight" was by accident. There is so much money involved here that buying off a few hundred politicians is just cheap insurance and a VERY small piece of the pie.



Right on, Brother! IMHO, a derivatives bubble collapse will be FAR worse than the depression of the 1930s. That was pretty much caused by financial system greed coupled with politician stupidity / buy-out. This one is orders of magnitude larger in size than any financial problems that have ever occurred and we have minimal resources with which to address the problem. I don't know. If these guys get to decorate lamp posts for their greed and corruption then at least some good will have come from it. In the meantime, the everyday citizens will pay a terrible price for this.



Be real careful with that kind of thinking. Just because this has always been the case before does not mean that it will be the case in the future. There have been MANY changes in the world of economics and finance. What we formerly knew as true may no longer be so. It is good that you have your stops in place. While these are not perfect protection from downside risk, they are pretty good and about all we can do when investing in paper assets. My concern is that if the derivatives market implodes, the results will not only include the stock markets of every country on Earth but also every fiat currency as well. It will do us no good to be stopped out with minimal losses to our dollars if the dollar itself collapses to virtually no value. Could that happen? It's probably a long shot but it is not impossible. That's where our PM hoards come into play. Even if we lose all of our paper assets, they will still retain some value... and perhaps a LOT of value.



When I look at my life and all that is in it and swirling around it, I have virtually no control over much of anything. Because of this, I do not worry overly much about this issue. I recognize it as a valid point, though.



True enough, Fredd, but if we are stopped out with a 10% loss instead of a 100% loss, we CAN stand that kind of hit.



If there is a derivatives market implosion, the financials will be those who are closest to the immediate blast. Because of this, I would not touch Citi, BofA, GS, MS, or JPM with a stick. WFC might be OK, as they do not seem to be into the derivatives market. I would avoid the shares of any company that is playing with this kind of fire. They WILL get burned at some point and so will everyone who is associated with them.

One thing I forgot to mention is be careful when it comes to oil because some of the companies are going to be taking a big hit and possibily crash. I would buy oil stocks and sell in the middle of the summer. For I see it possibily coming back down in the fall.

Stops are better than nothing, until the market (or your stock) is closed for hours or days, to reopen WAY below your stop.

It's like being in a commodity that's limit down, and stays there for a week.

Ed,

You're right about storing cash outside of banks. People should have an minimum of $1000 in small bills, mainly $5 & $10's. Most hardcore survival types who've studied the history of systemic collapses say that in a classic breakdown, cash will be king... At first, anyway. It's mainly a psychological issue. Most people would see any disruption in goods and services as a short term crisis only, and would expect and demand that the system reboot in a mater of days, or weeks, at the very most. In the interim, greenbacks would be the primary liquid capital available to the masses and the vast majority of stores would gladly continue accepting dollars until it became blatantly obvious that things were not on a recovery trajectory. That's when the government would step in and makes things much, much worse.