In periods of global economic crisis, where markets are fluid, Gold & silver are frequently considered as stellar investments. Beginning approximately the mid 90's the gold & silver prices have rose upwards a firm trend. Such a steady unfaltering rise in price drove a lot of dealers and investors to buy such sought-after investments as Gold and Silver. Those that invested their investments or earnings on these instruments have yeilded great returns as the spot silver price and that of Gold has unfalteringly risen. Against the worst financial crisis to befall us, gold & silver prices peaked against all odds reaching a new all time high.In order to fathom what i am implying here, just take a look at the latest spot silver price (altho o'er the last couple of days, this had been ensnared in a narrow trading range between thirty-five bucks and forty-two dollars per ounce) viz the preceeding prices.
And so if Gold & Silver prices have defended their position across time, the greatest question that begs to resolve then is what truly impacts these prices?. I will consider 3 key ingredients that determine these prices.
i. In economic terms, the single major determinant of any product is demand and supply. Gold & Silver prices are conditional to these elements. Investing in these commodities is for certain a thoughtful and prudent act, tho' it does come with a large gamble!. WHY is this so? Well since a lot of people know the profitability in holding gold or silver, its demand is in reality very high, thence the spot price silver or gold swings each day due to the huge demand and later sold volumes.
ii. Political events. Things suchas war, rising country shortfalls and geo-political upheavals have a consequence on gold & silver prices. The reason for this is ovate, in periods like this, many investors rush to invest in gold and silver to preserve the value of their funds, thereby again pushing demand, whilst supply stays static or actually declines. The events presently going on in the Libya, Tunisia, Iraq today etc are all impacting price of gold and silver prices today. In fact gold and silver are international reserved currency of the world. Whenceforth, if anything happens around the world therefore it surely affects the gold and silver price.
iii. The final component i will address in short is the relationship between the the gold & silver prices and the value of the American dollar. In the economic marketplace the price of the precious metals is influenced by the value of US $. This is whenceforth whenever the value of American $ goes down, commodity prices goes up and vice versa. Once the value of American dollar goes down then metals get inexpensive for the investors, which trigger the buying and brings up the price of gold and silver.