Gold And Silver Stocks Down In 2Q 2013 Along With The Metals Themselves

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Precious Metals and Mining during 2Q 2013

I’ve written elsewhere that it is better to invest in precious metal mining companies than the metals themselves. Precious Metal Mining companies are leveraged against the movements of the underlying price of the metals themselves. Second quarter 2013 saw the price of the metals tumble sharply sending the mining companies down as well:

  • Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining Fund (VGPMX) was down 23.00% during the second quarter, but still averaging 7.41% for the last 10 years.

As bad as the drop in mining companies was, it was still not as bad as the drop in the price of the metals themselves:

  • iShares Gold Trust (IAU) was down 25.48% during the second quarter.
  • iShares Silver Trust (SLV) was down 34.22% during the second quarter.

Here is a chart showing the movement of the price of gold during the second quarter of 2013:

Price of Gold during 2Q 2013

We suggest that you limit your investment In gold and silver to less than 3% of your portfolio. In truth, the optimum asset allocation to gold and silver as metals is always zero.

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David John Marotta is the Founder and President of Marotta Wealth Management. He played for the State Department chess team at age 11, graduated from Stanford, taught Computer and Information Science, and still loves math and strategy games. In addition to his financial writing, David is a co-author of The Haunting of Bob Cratchit.

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Austin Fey is a Wealth Manager at Marotta Wealth Management, specializing in charitable giving and asset allocations. She is a regular contributor to our Marotta On Money articles, often giving advice to those just getting started in finance.

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