How to play the price of platinum

Platinum, rarer than gold and traditionally more expensive, is now trading at a discount to the price of gold. So is it a good time to buy? Phil Oakley picks some of the best ways to invest in platinum.

As regular readers will know, we're fans of gold here at MoneyWeek; but could platinum be a better bet in 2012? Look at the chart below. It shows the ratio of the price of platinum compared to the price of gold (both in ounces). When the ratio is above one, platinum is more expensive than gold, which is typically the case because platinum is the rarer metal.

However, that relationship has broken down recently. Platinum is now trading at a discount to gold indeed, it hasn't been this cheap relative to gold for around 26 years. So is now a good time to buy?

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Phil spent 13 years as an investment analyst for both stockbroking and fund management companies.

 

After graduating with a MSc in International Banking, Economics & Finance from Liverpool Business School in 1996, Phil went to work for BWD Rensburg, a Liverpool based investment manager. In 2001, he joined ABN AMRO as a transport analyst. After a brief spell as a food retail analyst, he spent five years with ABN's very successful UK Smaller Companies team where he covered engineering, transport and support services stocks.

 

In 2007, Phil joined Halbis Capital Management as a European equities analyst. He began writing for MoneyWeek in 2010.