“A bucking bronco” is the best way to describe what has been happening on the stock market in year 2018. On any given day, the Dow Jones can plummet 300-500 points. Then the next day it comes galloping back. And just when jittery investors start to think, “Thank heavens that is over, whatever it was,” the Dow takes a plunge again.

For centuries, gold has been thought of as the greatest, most beautiful and most desirable metal in the world. That concept has entered popular culture in many ways. When a product or commodity is spoken of as the best of its kind, it is called “the gold standard.” When athletes compete at the Olympics, the first-place winners are awarded gold medals. And through the ages, many events have happened because of gold. There was the Gold Rush of 1849. Centuries earlier, Spanish explorers sailed to the New World in search of El Dorado, a city made of gold.

It might interest you to know that the Greek philosopher Plato made some philosophical inquiries into precious metals. You remember Plato. He lived from about 428-348 B.C., studied with Socrates, and taught Aristotle how to think. In his famous book The Republic, Plato wrote that human beings, just like precious metals, come from the earth. He also wrote that human beings, like minerals, can be made of three different metals…

Will your gold, silver, platinum and other precious metals increase in value in the coming months and years? Will the demand for recyclable precious metals increase in 2017? There is no way to predict with absolute certainty. But here are some trends to watch.

It seems likely that prices are trending up, and could continue to do so for months, or even for several years. If that is the case, what are your best gold investment strategies? If you believe that gold prices will continue to rise, here are two to consider…

Our editorial team had a very busy 2016, writing a total of 46 blog posts on a variety of topics. Some posts contained only nuts-and-bolts advice on finding and processing precious metals. Others covered trends. Yet we did our utmost to deliver practical, usable advice in every post we wrote. In today’s post, we’ll organize those 2016 posts by topic, so you can quickly find the information you’re looking for.

For several years now, the most common comment we’ve been hearing about investing in gold has been, “Gold prices are so low… stay away from it as an investment.” That’s the common wisdom. It might be common. But it is wise? Not really.

Have you thought of investing in silver, gold, or platinum bars? If you haven’t, maybe you should. Bullion is one of our favorite precious metal investments. Bullion offers important advantages to serious investors, for a lot of very good reasons . . .