How I acquire “free” gold and silver using the gold to silver ratio (GSR).
I was recently having a discussion with an investor friend of mine about how I acquire “free” gold and silver using the GSR and he asked me to describe the process. So, I did, but I also thought I would share it here for anyone that might be interested.
What is the GSR? The GSR is basically how many ounces of silver it takes to make one ounce of gold (in terms of dollars). It’s simple division: spot price of gold/spot price of silver. As I’m typing this, the spot price of gold is $1945.20 an ounce and the spot price of silver is $27.13 an ounce. So, it takes 72 ounces of silver to equal once ounce of gold (actually 71.7:1, but I’m going to use round numbers for my examples).
Gold and silver both tend to move in the same direction at the same time. If gold is up, silver will mostly like be as well. If gold is down, silver will mostly like be as well. But they don’t go up and down at the same rate. The GSR does fluctuate over time. Silver is mined at a ratio of 8:1 over gold. For every 8 ounces of silver pulled from the ground, there is only 1 ounce of gold. You’d think this ratio would be reflective in the price, right? Wrong.
The first recording of the GSR can be traced back to the Roman Empire and was set at a ratio of 12:1. It pretty much stayed the same for hundreds of years until the Coinage Act (Mint Act) of 1792 where the US government set the ratio at 15:1. The ratio fluctuated throughout the 20th century due to manipulation and FDR’s gold confiscation from US citizens (also known as the Gold Reserve Act of 1934). However, the average GSR ratio was 47:1 throughout the 20th century. In the 21st century (the last 20 years), the GSR has ranged mainly between 50:1 and 70:1. The lowest was 32:1 in 2011 and the highest was 125:1 just within the last few months.
Why am I telling you the history? It’s important to know in understanding how the process works. For my example, I am going to use the dates of March 17th, 2020 and today’s date of August 20th, 2020. On March 17th, 2020, silver closed at $12.77 an ounce and gold closed at $1537.79 an ounce. The GSR ratio on that day was 120:1. When the GSR gap is far apart like that, you want to trade your gold for silver. As the GSR narrows, you want to trade your silver back for gold. It’s a process of trading back and forth as the GSR expands and contracts. So, here’s how it works. On that day, you could have taken an ounce of gold to a coin shop or bullion dealer and traded it for 120 ounces of silver. You would hold the silver until the GSR narrows back to your favor. That is today! Remember, as I said earlier, today’s GSR is 72:1. Continuing in my example, you still have the 120 ounces of silver that you traded for back in March, but today you’re going to trade it back in for gold. So, you take 72 ounces of silver back to the coin shop or bullion dealer and trade it for 1 ounce of gold. So, now you still have the 1 ounce of gold that you originally had, but you also have an additional 48 ounces of silver left over (the 120 ounces of silver that you originally traded for minus the 72 ounces that you just traded). Or, if you wanted to trade all 120 ounces of silver, you could get approximately 1.7 ounces of gold. Either way, you’ve earned “free” metals with only a little trading.
And this is how I acquire “free” gold and silver using the GSR ratio. It’s just a process of trading back and forth when the GSR is in your favor. Nobody can time to GSR just right to maximize the best trade, but I think you can get pretty close. I actually traded some silver for gold last week when the GSR was 75:1. If I had waited a few days, I would have come out a little more ahead but, like I said, nobody can time it perfectly. Still, I’m happy with my trade. When the GSR widens, I’ll trade the gold back for silver. And that’s how it’s done.
And always remember the Golden Rule: The one with the gold…rules.
|