Stock market crash insurance is as precious as gold and silver for investors who seek to protect a portion of their assets from the vagaries of volatile equities.
Anyone who regards stock market crash insurance as unnecessary when equities historically outperform other investments should consider that March 31 marked the end of the worst first-quarter performance in history and the biggest quarterly cratering, a 23.2% drop, for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1987. The key question for investors interested in owning precious metals, which tend to rise when equities fall, is what form their purchases should take and whether their key goal is to turn a profit or to protect themselves against societal calamity of gold and silver.
This one-month chart shows gold gaining 1.9%, while silver and major U.S. stock indexes fell.
The difference between paper gold and physical gold is “fairly simple,” said Rich Checkan, president and chief operating officer of Asset Strategies International, a full-service tangible asset dealer in Rockville, Maryland.
“Physical gold is 100% backed gold,” Checkan said. “If you buy an ounce, an ounce is either delivered to you or a storage account in your name. If you buy 100 ounces, 100 ounces are delivered to you or to a storage account in your name.”
Paul Dykewicz interviews Bob Carlson (left), who chairs the Board of Trustees of Virginia’s Fairfax County Employees’ Retirement System and leads the Retirement Watch advisory service.
Paul Dykewicz hears investment recommendations from Hilary Kramer, whose advisory services include 2-Day Trader, Turbo Trader,High Octane Trader, Value Authority and Inner Circle.
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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce,Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz. The book is endorsed by Joe Montana, Joe Theismann, Ara Paseghian, “Rocket” Ismail, Reggie Brooks, Dick Vitale and many others. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulDykewicz.
