Today’s guest is Peter Hug, head of precious metals trading for Kitco.

With more than 30 years in the metals business, he has seen everything from the Hunt brothers’ attempts to corner the silver market in the 1970s, to the great bull run for gold after the 2008 financial crisis, to the steep drop in prices that followed.

In this episode, Peter discusses the three types of metals investors burst the bubble on commemorative coins, and discusses several ways you can gain exposure to gold without actually having to buy and store the metal itself.

He also discusses a simple strategy to ensure that you buy metals when they’re relatively inexpensive and take your profits when prices rise, rather than simply buying and holding the metals through all the ups and downs in the market.

Before the interview with Peter Hug, I just thought that you were supposed to buy gold if you thought that inflation was on the horizon. But Peter showed it’s a lot more complicated than that.

At the end of the day, precious metals are more of a store of value and hedge against economic turmoil than a way to increase wealth.

Unless you have really great timing and buy just before the start of a bull market, but that requires a crystal ball, and I don’t have one of those yet.

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