What's your opinion on palladium?

[Corsair]

Palladium, to me, seems like the red-headed step child (no knocks against red-heads or step children) of investing on the forum. And yes, I did steal that line from somewhere, I just can't remember where at the moment.

Back in very early 2001, Pd was bumping $1100/oz. Since then, the five-year high was $579, a drop of nearly 50%. Right now, the shiny stuff is at about $518/oz. So, my questions are:

-Do you have Palladium?
-How many ounces do you have? For personal reasons, you can estimate, or give a percentage of your total investments.
-When did you buy in?
-What is your sell point?
-Why Palladium, or why not?

Just wanted to test the waters here.

[Lemon Thrower]

palladium is used in hi-tech equipment, esp automobiles.

as china and industry build more cars and as their middle class grows, the demand for pdm will go off the charts.

the price is volatile for 2 reasons. first, for many applications, pdm can substitute for platinum, although perhaps less efficieintly. but there is a retooling investment of time and money to make that happen. so a year or two ago there was a major disruption in supply from s. africa platinum traded way up and it took some time for pdm to catch up. now i would expect the ratio to permanently contract as mfrs switched over from pdm to plat.

also, russia reportedly has had huge stockpiles of the metal which it had been dumping on the markets for hard currency. they were a bit secretive becasue they did this when they were embarrassingly short of cash. supposedly that supply has dried up.

the slight negative is that like plat it does not have a history of being used as money. however, if fiat dies, people will want tangible assets and pdm meets the definition of money as well gold and silver. its more of a ground floor opportunity imho.

[Dvorak]

No Palladium here. When I think of the normal person and how much they know about the value of gold & silver, I don't think Palladium will ever be a major factor in barter or exchange. Most people don't even know what it is, they probably think it is the name of an amusement park or shopping center.

This is not to say it doesn't have it's place. It's just for the reasons I'm investing/stacking, it doesn't fit.

[Ardent Listener]

First of all we should consider that palladium is more rare than gold. It is an industrial precious metal used primarily in the auto industry but there are many other more minor uses for it. When it peaked and then tanked in price Ford Motor took a billion dollar beating on it. That alone may scare investors away from it. Another thing that concerns me is that none of my local dealers are interested in it. But of course if it ever jumps in price again that would soon change. I think it fell as low as $200 or less back in the 08 markets crash. On the old forum I posted several threads about it so I do have an interest in it as an investment. I currently do not have any but it sure worthy of discussion and I'm happy to see such a thread about it posted here.

[JadeDragon]

I've got some I bought off another member because I figured I wanted to own some for the fun of it (I should get out more). Is it a good investment? I guess we will see. If it ever takes off I might sell it, if I remember.

Love the comment about it being the name of an amusement park or shopping center - we have some similar named buildings here too.

[Corsair]

Someone in my Comp class is in a garage band called Palladium. That made me smile.

I've got one ounce, and working on getting a second. I like that it has been double current spot, unlike gold, which people are just speculating on. I don't want to start a gold war, but I don't own any of it. In fact, I dumped it to get my Pd.

[Ardent Listener]

At heart I'm an industrial precious and base metal kind of guy. That isn't to say we don't have very serious economic and monetary problems where gold rules. But if or when we work our way out of them then the metals such as platinum, palladium, silver, copper and nickel will carry us on into the 21st century. Anyone got a crystal ball without a crack in it? If so, then tell me if we are going into a inflationary depression, deflationary depression, recovery or even bullish economic growth over the next 20 years. I sure would like to know for sure. But no matter what we may experience over the next 20 years I feel a guy could do worse than to have some money into a metal such as palladium.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

I do not own any palladium. Not that it isn't a good investment... I just spend my money on other PM's. Palladium is a wild ride just like silver. You have to time it right to get into that market. The auto industry is fickel.

This is my first post here on "the other side"! Man, it's a little different.

[frugalcanuck]

The Ottawa Senators Hockey team has an address on Palladium Rd right next to the Palladium Auto Park.
I dont own any at the moment but might one day if it doesnt go way up between now and then. The reason I will buy Palladium will just be for diversification purposes in PMs and I dont want to miss out if the price swings way up. Im still working on Silver right now... As well as Cu and Ni. The only Gold, Platinum or Palladium I am picking up at the moment is the stuff I am picking up off the ground. I have only found gold so far.

[Ardent Listener]

https://www.kitcomm.com/attachment.php? ... 1284427362

Take a look at this. Down and back up higher yet before you could dial your dealer.

[Corsair]

https://www.kitcomm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11262&d=1284427362

Take a look at this. Down and back up higher yet before you could dial your dealer.

Won't let me see it Ardent, what's it say?

[moboman]

I hate to get off topic but, what kind of premiums are you seeing it at? When it was in the $250-300 range the premium was around 50 for just generic rounds.

I think i remember seeing that the Canadian mint was going to start making palladium maples again, I think this could make the metal more appealing to more investors.

A little over a year ago I was at a coin show and one of the dealers had a 10oz bar of palladium he was trying to sell me. His pitch was that he thinks it's going to double or triple over the next couple years. He said he had several bars that he had set aside for himself.

I personally think that it's too expensive right now to invest in it as it really does not have a lot of uses other than by car manufacturers. Who knows how the automotive industry will change with all the different ways the government has their hands in it. They might find out palladium doesn't filter out enough of the bad exhaust from the car or we might all be driving electric cars and then the price of palladium will fall through the floor.

[moboman]

Here's a couple of pie charts to show the uses of palladium and a short description on each.
http://www.stillwaterpalladium.com/uses.html