Posted 04/23/2024 7:34 pm
When you say rare do you mean coins made of platinum , rhodium etc or do you just mean general precious metal coins?
A lot of numismatists (myself included) also invest in gold, silver and platinum bullion also. I invest in the more obscure precious metals too but I have to tell you that the bid offer from ANYONE in say palladium or rhodium will make your eyes water and don't even think about investing in stuff like iridium - it is supremely costly to get in and out of positions and virtually impossible to make money on it because of this.
In terms of trading in gold and silver, I learnt that on wall street as it was my job ( I was a trader in all asset classes specializing in exotic derivatives), and it is difficult to find a book explaining how to make money doing this.
In addition, the big offer even with silver and gold is prohibitive to trade say daily unless you work on wall street. So you are left with long term trading.
And long term trading of gold and silver is very very boring. This is because gold and silver tend to range trade a LOT and then all of a sudden after some years prices can explode. Prices in precious tend to explode higher which is good because it is very hard to be short precious metals in terms of being able to source leverage and very dangerous too.
My best advice would be that you buy a couple of coins that trade close to bullion - in fact the US double eagles in some grades such as the 1904 in anything below MS63 can trade almost at bullion (a couple of hundred dollars over) prices because there are so many high quality survivors - to dip your toe in the water and watch how your portfolio changes in value.
If you don't want to spend 4 or 5 thousand (gold is expensive these days :() then you can perhaps buy a couple of half ounce modern coins - the problem is that the smaller the fraction the more expensive per ounce even common coins tend to be.
Anyway buy some gold, or even silver - its harder to find any coinage at spot but you can buy silver rounds that look like coins at basically spot + a dollar - and begin monitoring the value of your portfolio.
When you have a good idea of how the market behaves - and you should certainly study gold and silver charts for the last 100 years or so but note that they won't be that useful as you should really adjust for inflation too to get a sense of where the market really goes at different times - then you can begin to invest in larger size.
One additional thing I would say about precious metal investing - almost everyone including the best precious metals traders tend to feel they own too little gold when it is going up and too much when it is going down. its a feeling you don't get with many other assets but it is because of the strange way gold and silver behave compared to a lot of other things like equities or even bonds. If you get that feeling tis not strange almost everyone has it.
Good luck.
P.S. If you want some good books about the markets in general that can help you
Commodity Fundamentals - this is a good book to learn the basics but gives no deep trading insight.
Diary of a Professional Commodities trader - this is actually probably the best book overall but he is really more of an ags trader than a precious metals trader but still fantastic.
The Prosperity Mirage - very useful as a framework book to understand inflation and financial conditions. Will tell you nothing about commodities directly but gives you a framework to think about all trading.
Trading in the zone - important advocate of discipline in trading - you will need this if you are trying to make money from precious metals.
Anyway ... good luck ... its fun being a trader but if you want it to be your living it can actually make you a nervous wreck - it did exactly that to me ... now because I see every angle I worry about EVERYTHING.
A lot of numismatists (myself included) also invest in gold, silver and platinum bullion also. I invest in the more obscure precious metals too but I have to tell you that the bid offer from ANYONE in say palladium or rhodium will make your eyes water and don't even think about investing in stuff like iridium - it is supremely costly to get in and out of positions and virtually impossible to make money on it because of this.
In terms of trading in gold and silver, I learnt that on wall street as it was my job ( I was a trader in all asset classes specializing in exotic derivatives), and it is difficult to find a book explaining how to make money doing this.
In addition, the big offer even with silver and gold is prohibitive to trade say daily unless you work on wall street. So you are left with long term trading.
And long term trading of gold and silver is very very boring. This is because gold and silver tend to range trade a LOT and then all of a sudden after some years prices can explode. Prices in precious tend to explode higher which is good because it is very hard to be short precious metals in terms of being able to source leverage and very dangerous too.
My best advice would be that you buy a couple of coins that trade close to bullion - in fact the US double eagles in some grades such as the 1904 in anything below MS63 can trade almost at bullion (a couple of hundred dollars over) prices because there are so many high quality survivors - to dip your toe in the water and watch how your portfolio changes in value.
If you don't want to spend 4 or 5 thousand (gold is expensive these days :() then you can perhaps buy a couple of half ounce modern coins - the problem is that the smaller the fraction the more expensive per ounce even common coins tend to be.
Anyway buy some gold, or even silver - its harder to find any coinage at spot but you can buy silver rounds that look like coins at basically spot + a dollar - and begin monitoring the value of your portfolio.
When you have a good idea of how the market behaves - and you should certainly study gold and silver charts for the last 100 years or so but note that they won't be that useful as you should really adjust for inflation too to get a sense of where the market really goes at different times - then you can begin to invest in larger size.
One additional thing I would say about precious metal investing - almost everyone including the best precious metals traders tend to feel they own too little gold when it is going up and too much when it is going down. its a feeling you don't get with many other assets but it is because of the strange way gold and silver behave compared to a lot of other things like equities or even bonds. If you get that feeling tis not strange almost everyone has it.
Good luck.
P.S. If you want some good books about the markets in general that can help you
Commodity Fundamentals - this is a good book to learn the basics but gives no deep trading insight.
Diary of a Professional Commodities trader - this is actually probably the best book overall but he is really more of an ags trader than a precious metals trader but still fantastic.
The Prosperity Mirage - very useful as a framework book to understand inflation and financial conditions. Will tell you nothing about commodities directly but gives you a framework to think about all trading.
Trading in the zone - important advocate of discipline in trading - you will need this if you are trying to make money from precious metals.
Anyway ... good luck ... its fun being a trader but if you want it to be your living it can actually make you a nervous wreck - it did exactly that to me ... now because I see every angle I worry about EVERYTHING.
