Why you should include precious metals in your investment portfolio:

1- Gold is always seen as safe haven especially during periods of economic crises.

2- It is used as a hedge against the USD: As one of the responses to economic crisis, governments have printed huge amounts of money which led to loss of the value of paper money and hence dramatic elevation of gold prices.

3- High liquidity: gold is easy to buy and sell, because it has limited supply, i.e can not be made by humans, so its amounts will never be enough to meet the demands.

Although there is a controversy about how much gold will rise, there is a general expectation that it will continue to rise on the short and medium term with some analysts expect that it may reach $2000 within a year.

These are some of the available options in gold investments so that you can choose one or more according to your goals:

1- Gold bullion coins: these are coins made for investors interested in their bullion value. An example is the American gold eagle coin which is available in denominations of 1/10 ounce, 1/4 ounce, 1/2 ounce and 1 ounce. It may be suitable to you if you want to buy relatively small amounts of gold, such as 1/2 ounce a month. The great advantage of bullion coins is that they are easily available, liquid and portable.The disadvantage is the cost of buying and selling. It will cost about $25 more than the spot price to get 1 ounce coin, and if you sell it you will receive a few dollars less than the spot price. The cost for a buy and sell combined is about $30.

2- Gold Jewelry: This is probably the most costly method and the least suitable for investment unless you want to enjoy them and make some money on the long run.

3- Gold bullion bars: bars are available in a variety of sizes from small to quite large up to hundred ounce bars of gold. The advantage is that they are cheaper to buy and sell. Because bars are issued by a wide variety of makers, it is strongly recommended that you buy from a well-known maker like Englehard.

4- Exchange traded funds (ETF): This is a relatively new option available only in the last few years. These are mainly similar to mutual funds and shares of ownership are bought and sold through the Stock exchange. The great advantage is that they are the least costly option as investors can buy and sell gold very close to the spot price. It is probably the most suitable option if you want to buy or sell large amounts of gold. Another advantage is that ETF shares can also be bought on margin or sold short.

5- Gold options: This method is suitable to purchase huge amounts of gold. Gold option contracts are usually issued in sizes of 100 or 1000 ounces. A call contract allows you to purchase gold at a set price for a fixed length of time, for example, if you are able to purchase a call at $700 per ounce and gold goes up to $800 per ounce, you make a profit of $100 per ounce on the ounces in your contract. The same goes for put contracts but in the other way, if you have a put contract for $700 per ounce and gold declines to $600 per ounce, then you make a $100 per ounce. The disadvantage of this method is that it carries significant risk.

6- Gold mining stocks: This option offers an opportunity for even greater profit than that of gold itself, as the companies become greatly more profitable with the increase in gold prices.