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What to Do With Gold and Silver TodayBy
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Precious metals are making a move...
Gold and silver both bottomed the day after the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee raised rates in mid-December. And they've climbed higher ever since...
This week, both metals hit three-month highs. Gold traded as high as $1,264 per ounce and silver traded up to $18.48 per ounce.
And as I'll explain in today's essay, it could be the start of the next big leg higher for both gold and silver...
 If you hold any precious metals positions in your portfolio, this is welcome news. It was a rough 2016 for gold and silver bulls. If you held gold and silver stocks, you likely stopped out of some of your holdings. In my DailyWealth Trader service, we stopped out of a couple of positions... But we're still holding a couple of 50%-plus winners.
As a reminder, I suggest everyone hold at least 5%-10% of their wealth in gold and silver. (That can include some mining stocks, as a speculation.) Since the 2008 financial crisis, global central banks have employed a gigantic "E-Z Credit" program of money printing and low-to-negative interest rates. It's a reckless program that debases paper currencies and runs a high chance of ending in disaster.
Gold and silver, which have been used as money for thousands of years, are great forms of financial-disaster insurance. Governments can't print them on a whim, as they do with paper currencies. So people turn to gold and silver when they're worried about the value of their cash declining.
The natural question today is, "What now?" Should we buy gold and silver miners to earn big profits on the next leg higher? Should we wait for a pullback?
Before I get to the answer, let's take a look at the most important big-picture chart for the precious metals. It's a huge "wedge" – or narrowing trading range – in gold...
 Often, when any asset breaks out of a wedge, it makes a sharp move in the direction of the breakout. Right now, gold is in the middle of its trading range. Two of the biggest clues that point toward the next big move in gold are the direction of the U.S. dollar and of the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield (the benchmark for global interest rates). But both of these are in a sort of "no-man's land" right now, too.
Gold will likely climb toward the top of the wedge at around $1,310 per ounce... And silver will likely move in the same direction. But we don't have a strong buy signal right now.
Here's my advice... If you don't have at least 5% of your investable assets in precious metals, go ahead and buy some today. Start with the physical metals, in coin or bar form.
If for whatever reason you don't want to own physical gold and silver, the next best thing is owning a fund that holds the metals in a secure vault, like the Central Fund of Canada (CEF). Right now, it trades at a big 9% discount to the actual value of the gold and silver in its vaults. That's a great deal.
You may also want to put a little bit of money into a fund like the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners Fund (GDX), which holds a basket of gold miners. It will be more volatile than gold, both on the upside and the downside. For most people, miners should probably be a smaller percentage of their holdings than the physical metals.
If you already hold 5%-10% of your portfolio in precious metals, you can add to your holdings today. But don't go overboard. With CEF trading at such a big discount, that's my top recommendation. Any miners that you add should be small, "starter" positions.
With gold trading inside of its wedge, the reward-to-risk profile on the miners isn't great right now. The current 10-week uptrend is a positive development. But it's not time to get overly aggressive.
If you're anxious to buy, take another look at that chart above. There's no need to hurry and take big risks. If gold breaks out of the wedge to the upside, we'll have a much better trade setup. At that point, we can expect much higher precious metals prices ahead. That will be the time to get aggressive.
Good trading,
Ben Morris
Further Reading:
Regular DailyWealth readers know Steve has been keeping a close eye on gold for months. In late October, he said the "red light" in gold had changed to yellow... but it wasn't time to buy yet. In December, he said gold was inching closer to a buy... but still needed two things to happen first. And last month, he explained why gold is FINALLY a buy again.
Brett Eversole says the bullish upside in metals isn't limited to just gold and silver. President Trump's plans mean more demand for another group of metals. Get the full story here: A 30% Upside Opportunity in the 'Masters of the Universe.'
Market NotesTHIS BUSINESS IS ALWAYS IN DEMAND Today, we're highlighting one of our favorite strategies at work... buying companies with simple businesses.
Longtime readers know we're fans of "boring" businesses that provide products and services that folks will always need. These businesses don't garner much attention in the financial-news headlines. Last week, we checked in on packaged-goods company Conagra (CAG). Today, we'll look at Waste Management (WM)...
The $32 billion trash and recycling giant is North America's leading waste-disposal company. It provides a valuable service in an industry that is always in demand. People will continue to produce trash no matter what is going on with the economy, the White House, or Wall Street. Its business is simple and easy to understand.
As you can see from the chart below, Waste Management has been in a solid uptrend. Shares recently broke out to an all-time high... and have risen more than 30% over the past year. As long as people still generate tons of waste each year, this uptrend is likely to continue...
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