Bullion Market

Soup! Who knew that those little salty cubes would be so popular...? But no.

This is about precious metal amalgamations. Bullion markets exist all over the world, and are open 24/7. Traders buy and sell precious metals such as platinum, gold, and silver, just like they would a commodity such as corn.

Bullion can serve as a hedge against inflation, or just as a relatively safe investment. One hurdle in trading in the bullion market revolves around where to store all these coins and bars without having them stolen. An alternative to buying the actual gold, for example, would be to just invest in a gold exchange-traded fund (ETF), where you don’t actually take possession of the gold, but can buy and sell. Not as shiny and fun to look at, but...safer.

The ETFs presumably rise and fall in pretty tight lockstep with gold prices. So if you have gold or silver jewelry you no longer wear, wait until the price of gold goes up in the bullion market, and then take it to a dealer or jeweler for some real cash.