This post JUST IN: Amazon Prime Gold? appeared first on Daily Reckoning.

Amazon is taking over the gold market.

I've seen it with my own eyes!

Last night, I was minding my own business, searching for textbooks for my daughters. This year, their school has moved to digital textbooks - which means we have to buy the Amazon Kindle book for each of their classes.

And as I was looking through the titles, an ad for gold coins popped up.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

After all, Amazon is taking over every other hot market including retail, music, video, cloud computing - and even organic foods through its purchase of Whole Foods.

Call me naive, but I was surprised to see that I could buy a one ounce gold coin with my Amazon Prime account?

Amazon's Foray Into the Hot Gold Market

Here's a screenshot of the ad served up on my computer.

Since I've been actively researching gold coins and other precious metals, my computer must have cookies that tell Amazon I'm a great candidate to buy gold coins. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw a similar ad on your computer soon.

Of course, it makes sense for Amazon to break into this market. After all, investors are using precious metals to protect their wealth from inflation and a falling dollar. And according to what I'm seeing, this is just the beginning of a major trend!

If Amazon can capture just a small part of this demand - and mark prices up just a bit on gold and silver coins - the company will lock in some serious profits!

Of course, the gold coin market will only be a small part of Amazon's growing global business. And by now, you should know that I'm not going to suggest you buy Amazon's stock. The shares are too expensive and risky.

But the mere fact that Amazon is profiting from selling gold coins should tell us something about the gold market. Specifically, that demand is strong?

Strong Demand From Gold ETF Investors

So where is the demand for gold coming from, and what should we expect in the second half of 2017?

This week, I've been reading through the World Gold Council's second quarter report on the global gold market. And I've come across some very compelling statistics.

The first thing that caught my eye was the 56 tons of gold purchased by ETF investors in the second quarter.¹

Now to be clear, these are purchases of exchange traded funds that are backed by gold. When investors put money into these funds, the fund managers then have to either buy physical gold, or buy "paper gold" (financial contracts that rise and fall with the price of gold).

I call this the "lazy man's way" of buying gold.

It's easy to do in any brokerage account (including an IRA or 401(k) account). If the price of gold moves higher, your ETF investment will increase in value. This of course assumes that the financial markets continue to operate normally.

Demand for gold-backed ETFs helps to drive the price of gold higher. That's because as more people put cash into these funds, the fund managers must buy gold or gold related assets. The buying pressure naturally pushes prices higher.

So as this trend continues in the second half, I expect ounces of gold and silver to become more expensive.

Although this helps drive gains for ETF investors, I still think you should invest a portion of your wealth into physical gold or silver.

And that brings us to the next section of the World Gold Council's report. Physical gold purchases.

Physical Gold Purchases Are Up 13%

Demand for gold bars and gold coins in the second quarter was up 13% from last year.

In comparison to the "lazy man's way" of buying gold, buying physical gold bars and coins is more like the "all-pro way" to invest in precious metals.

When you buy physical gold or silver, you're actually taking possession of your precious metals, and storing them in a safe or safety deposit box.

This makes sense if you have reservations about our global financial system.

While I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, I do think it's a good idea to own some physical precious metals. It's not too hard to imagine a scenario where banking and brokerage accounts could be hacked or disabled. If this were to happen, you would want a portion of your wealth to be available to you - to help with day-to-day living expenses if nothing else.

That's why savvy investors consistently accumulate physical gold and silver. Especially in today's market with very attractive prices. Cheap gold and silver is certainly helping to fuel the rising demand for gold bars and coins.

One other interesting point from the World Gold Council's report was that Chinese demand for gold bars and coins actually increased 56% over last year.

That's a tremendous amount of growth, from a country with a very large population.

If the Chinese trend of buying gold and silver coins continues, the country will very quickly drive the price of gold higher.

Chinese demand is just one of many reasons I expect gold prices to move sharply higher in the second half of this year?

Here's My Favorite Way To Buy Physical Gold

I've told you that I believe gold ETF investing is the "lazy man's way" of investing in gold. It certainly has some serious risks.

And I've also explained why owning physical gold makes sense? And how physical demand for gold is growing quickly.

But what's the best way for you to invest in gold?

Instead of buying gold coins on Amazon, I recommend using a reputable precious metals dealer. This way, you can be assured that the coins or bars that you receive are legitimate. And the dealer can handle all of the important shipping and insurance details.

One dealer that you should consider is Hard Assets Alliance. Their website is very easy to use, and their platform ensures you're getting the best price possible in their network.

Please note, we have a business relationship with HAA. So if you decide to open and fund an account, we will be compensated by Hard Assets Alliance for sending you their way - but we wouldn't be doing that if we didn't believe in their services.

When you buy physical precious metals, I recommend owning both silver and gold.

As you know, gold is the conventional standard when it comes to investing in precious metals.

But I believe silver could actually increase in value more quickly than gold. That's because silver has many industrial uses on top of being a precious metal. So the price of silver can be driven both by demand for precious metals, and also by many different global industries.

Plus, since silver is less expensive per ounce, it may be easier to use for life expenses. For instance, you may be able to negotiate groceries for your family with a one-ounce silver coin. But if you have a one-ounce gold coin, the value would be much more than what you could fit in your shopping cart.

That's all for today. But please do make the decision to protect some of your wealth with physical gold and silver.

And when you do, I'd appreciate it if you would send me an email. I'd love to hear about your experience buying gold or silver, and how you expect these precious metals to protect your family's wealth in the years ahead.

Here's to growing and protecting your wealth!

Zach Scheidt
Editor, The Daily Edge
EdgeFeedback@AgoraFinancial.com
Twitter: @ZachScheidt
Facebook: @TheDailyEdgeUSA

P.S. If you're interested in buying gold or silver, but you need extra cash to make the purchase, I've got some exciting news! There's a special transaction you can make in the gold market that will yield instant cash in your account. This cash can be used to buy physical gold or silver - or even to cover day-to-day expenses!

All you have to do is follow the instructions in my report, and you'll be able to instantly collect your cash from gold. This simple transaction should take you three minutes or less!

>>>Click Here to learn how to get your cash from gold!<<<

¹ Gold Demand Trends Q2 2017, World Gold Council, August 2017

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