How Did Gold and Silver Fare in 2023?

With 2023 coming to a close, it’s time to take stock of how the year has gone. In terms of financial performance, the year may have been a mixed bag for many people.

Bank failures early in the year frightened many people and caused massive movements of funds both within and without the banking system. Many who sought to put their money into safe haven assets looked to money markets, Treasury securities, and the old safe haven standbys gold and silver.

Stock markets moved around quite a bit, although they seem to be ending the year on a high note. Bond funds had a rough start to the year, although many look to end the year in the black. And with interest rates as high as they are, many Americans have taken advantage of Treasury securities, money market funds, and high-yield savings accounts to help protect their assets against inflation.

And how did gold and silver do? Well, let’s take a look.

Gold Glitters

Gold opened the year at around $1,800 and took off running. By February the yellow metal was over $1,950 an ounce and looked like it would threaten its record highs. But February and early March began to see some softness in the gold market.

With the bank failures in March, interest in gold took off, as did the gold price. Between the bank failures in March and May, the gold price reached to over $2,050. But as fears of a banking system collapse waned, the gold price fell as well.

By October gold was right back where it had started at the beginning of the year, no doubt disappointing many gold owners. But it’s important to remember that owning gold, especially if you own gold in a gold IRA, is normally about long-term wealth preservation rather than short-term profit-making.

Those who stayed the course and held onto their gold welcomed what happened to gold after October, as the gold price went on to break its all-time high price. Still over $2,000 an ounce, gold looks to end the year with a healthy 10-11% gain.

The outlook for 2024 continues to look bullish, as the potential for recession seems to be growing all the time. While many people expected a recession this year, that doesn’t appear to have materialized (although recessions are always dated after the fact).

If the economy continues to slow, and inflation or unemployment begin to weigh on the economy, there’s a good chance that the gold price could continue to climb next year.

Silver Not So Much

Silver started the year at around $24 an ounce and saw similar price movements as gold. While the silver price remained flat at the beginning of the year and declined in February just like gold, silver too took off in the aftermath of the bank failures.

But silver experienced more weakness than gold through mid-year, before following gold down into October. From there silver picked back up again, but while it followed gold up, it didn’t seem to have quite the same staying power as gold.

Right now silver is trading right around where it was at the beginning of the year, which is undoubtedly disappointing to those who expected silver to do as well as gold. But while 2023 may end up being a wash for silver, 2024 could still bring some welcome surprises.

It’s important to remember that while the silver price generally follows roughly the same patterns as the gold price, it doesn’t always perform exactly the same. During crises, for instance, silver can actually outperform gold.

Looking back at the last recession, gold had great performance early in 2008 before slumping toward the latter part of the year. But while both gold and stock markets tanked into October, gold eventually decoupled and began to rise again.

Silver, on the other hand, didn’t do so well. So while gold gained 25% during the period from October 2007 to March 2009, silver only gained about 1%. It was what silver did after that that was special.

From their 2008 lows, gold went on a tear, nearly tripling in price by 2011 as it hit an all-time high price. But silver more than quintupled from its 2008 lows by 2011, providing far greater growth than gold did.

That’s a cautionary tale for anyone counting out silver today. Just because silver may be lagging today doesn’t mean that it’s going to lag forever.

Silver could very well repeat its 2008-2011 performance in the coming years, especially if the economy falls into a severe recession.

How to Benefit From Gold and Silver

While many Americans have already taken the plunge and bought gold and silver, there may be many more sitting on the sidelines waiting to make a decision. Maybe they’re waiting to see if the economy really falls into recession before they decide to try to protect themselves with gold and silver.

Maybe they don’t trust that gold and silver are really entering a bull market. Or maybe they want to buy gold and silver but don’t know where to start.

Thankfully there’s still time to buy gold and silver if you’re looking for a safe haven asset, a store of wealth, or even just something to diversify your portfolio. With numerous options available to you, there’s something to fit everyone’s needs.

For those who want to protect their tax-advantaged assets, there are gold and silver IRAs, which offer you the same tax-advantaged status as any other IRA account but with the added benefit of owning physical gold and silver coins or bars. You can even fund your gold IRA or silver IRA with a tax-free rollover from your existing 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA, or similar account.

For those who prefer direct cash purchases, there are dozens of different gold and silver coins available. And because Goldco works directly with mints around the world to source our coins directly, we can guarantee the authenticity of the gold and silver that you buy.

Next year could be an interesting year in many ways, from the growing likelihood of recession to the possibility that gold and silver prices could really take off. If you want to take advantage of gold and silver’s potential, call Goldco today to learn more about the many ways that you can benefit from owning gold and silver.