Basic Instincts — Women’s Intuition

Traditionally, investing in precious metals has been a very male-oriented activity, with men making up 80 to 90 percent of the customer base. However, the ratio has begun to change. Now I’d have to say that no more than 60 percent of precious metals investors are men, which means that women are now closer to 40 percent of all those investing in precious metals.

That change is more than a shift; in fact, it’s practically a revolution.
I’d like to attribute this to women’s basic instincts. Most men should know by now that women tend to have better instincts than men when making decisions. While men tend to take greater risks in the investment world, women are more cautious with their investments. For example, you’ll find them seeking out institutional types of investments and government-backed securities like FDIC insured accounts, savings bonds, and treasury bills.

So, with the economy going down like the Titanic – and Congress and the Fed trying to steer it right back into the iceberg – it’s little surprise that women are looking to be even more cautious than usual and are reverting back to fundamentals.

It turns out that they have the right basic instincts.
Anyone paying attention knows the score: unfunded liabilities, ballooning budget numbers, increased government spending, massive deficits. I won’t bore you with the numbers, but as former U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker has been saying, the numbers are all big and they’re all bad. The worst of it is not that these numbers are horrific (they are!), but that they’re being reported by the very same foxes who are watching the henhouse. At best, it should cause us to view the numbers with great skepticism if not outright suspicion.

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes a tipping point as “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable."
If you have been saving for a rainy day, the storm is upon us. The winds are swirling, momentum is building, and people are sensing that it’s going to get a lot worse. That’s why prices of most commodities – including oil – have fallen off even when world currencies are taking it on the chin. And that’s also why we see gold and silver prices at or near record highs whether you measure them in euros or Swiss francs. And precious gold recently bounced off its all-time high in terms of dollars.

Women intuitively see that this country’s economy has reached a tipping point. Something different is clearly going to happen, and, being the more risk-averse gender, they’re counting on the historical assurance of gold and silver as a means to preserve wealth. Echoing the quote attributed to Mark Twain, they are more concerned about the return of their money than the return on their money.

From: Precious Metals Monthly