gold news

 [Music] I'm Charlotte Mloud with investingnews.com and here today with me is Lissa Sprat. She's president of Spratoney and co-founder of Argo. Thank you so much for being here. Great to have you. Yeah, thank you for having me here. really good to be speaking with you and I'm sure many people in our audience will be familiar with you, but just because it's our first time talking. I thought we could start with a brief introduction to yourself and your background in the industry. Sure. Yeah,

sure. Um, so I actually joined Sprat Money about 15 years ago. I'm not sure if you're familiar with what Spratoney does, but we are a physical dealer. So we sell gold, silver and platinum for delivery and storage. And my involvement with Argo is we are um co-founder and part owner. We are invested in Argo and we're very interested in seeing it succeed because this is the next uh level of and the next generation of of gold ownership. Yeah. So definitely really exciting and good to have that context there. There's

some recent news between Argo and Sprat Money that we're going to go into, but before we do, I thought we could get your your thoughts on the gold market as a whole right now. Obviously, it's been a really exciting year so far or really even longer than a year, but record setting prices in the market. One question I I usually like to start with is just where do you see us in the cycle for gold at the moment? Sure. Yeah, and that's a great question. So, um, obviously, you know, that gold has taken

a little bit of a hit here, although today I think or the last time I checked, it was up 26 or $27, but, um, you know, gold has taken a hit down from its high of 3,500 in April. Uh, so, you know, I I I account that to this US China tariff deal. Obviously, um, with this sort of 90-day truth being in place, I think investors feel like they can go back to their regular asset classes, um, whether they're investing in bonds or equities, and they're feeling a little bit more comfortable to go back to the market. The market's

rallying a bit. Um, so they're they're leaving the safe haven of gold. Um, but we got to remember that's only a 90day uh, truce, a 90-day situation. what is going to happen at the end of 90 days? Uh will Trump, you know, put in another truce between China and the US for another 90 days? We don't know. And I think it's that uncertainty that's really moving the market. Uh but for now, I would account for this drop from the highs as just, you know, the markets are rallying and

people are feeling safe again. Yeah. Honestly, it's it's very interesting to me how quickly people forget what was going on just so recently and it's it's probably going to come back that volatility once again. So, really good to have that and I think that that does explain very well the price action that we've seen recently. So, we've got we've got the tariffs going on. What are the other key price drivers for gold that you're watching at the moment? Because obviously there's there's so many

factors that can move the sector. Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously we've got inflationary pressures. Um, we're seeing the geopolitical risks that are not going away. Obviously, the the Ukraine, Russia war, the unrest in the Middle East. Um, but that being said, we're seeing a record level of gold buying. Um, you know, we're seeing central banks trying to reduce their exposure to volatile currencies. So those are all um drivers that are pushing people into especially central banks and sort of

what I call the smart investors into gold. And we can talk about that for a second because I you know what what we see here at Sprat Money is we see this what I call the smart money goes in first. So we're seeing central banks, institutions, high netw worth clients, they buy first. They're sort of the first of the party. And I think the public eventually becomes aware and then we see the masses coming in and and the the other buyers. But right now what we're seeing as Sprout Money and I'm

sure Argo is seeing as well is the um the high net worth and the institutional investors have sort of turned themselves on to precious metals um the gold and silver specifically um buying in large quantities and we'll we'll see the the masses follow behind that. Yeah, that was actually one of the the key questions that I wanted to ask you is, you know, who is buying gold right now. So, obviously, we're starting to see it come down the chain. What do you think for for the masses will be the

trigger to come into gold? Because I've heard so many different different ideas about what that could be. That's a good question. Well, anytime we see, you know, mass buying and and even just here on a smaller scale at Sprout Money, we see, you know, the phone lines ringing off the hook and and um online orders going crazy. Uh normally it's when we see price movements. Um and the price movements of course are tied to what's happening in the world. So if if Trump um you know imposes a new tariff or you know there's

some exposure in um or the the US dollar starts to weaken um those are sort of key factors that can sort of drive the price and when the price is going and recently I've seen specifically going up I see people coming in you know because they don't want to be the last people to the party. They would they want to get in while the price is going up. They don't want to buy, you know, before it's too late. Yeah, of course. Of course. Nobody wants to be too late on an investment. So, we've got a little bit of an idea now of

your thoughts on what's going on in the gold market and maybe we go and take a look at what's happening with Argo and Wispot money. I thought maybe the the first place to look at is just explaining what Argo is and how it works. So, if I'm understanding correctly, it's essentially using blockchain technology to facilitate precious metals ownership. But maybe you can shed a little bit more light on on how it works. Yeah, that's that's precisely it. So, basically, it's um the

idea was allowing institutions and I would actually say younger generations to own uh a digital gold. And what people love about it is that it is stored at the Royal Canadian Mint. So, it's stored with the sovereign mint and our involvement, Sprat Money's involvement is that now if somebody does want to take physical delivery, Argo will because we're sister companies, Argo will um pass the trade on to Sprout Money and we can do the physical fulfillment for them. So, that's basically how it works. And we we

believe that of course the younger generation will uh be interested in buying um through Argo just because it is it is digital. It's um a little bit more modern and sleek and um you know it appeals to them. Yeah, this is really interesting. So there's there's the digital angle and definitely I could see how that appeals to the younger generation who's used to doing all these things online. But then this is a recent news is adding that physical delivery option. So maybe if you can talk a

little bit more about why that was important to to bring into the mix for people. Yeah. Uh well having physical delivery I think more than anything for for investors and for clients it's peace of mind. So, knowing that the gold is actually physically there at the RCM and that we can take that gold and we can put it, you know, in a FedEx or a, you know, a Canada Post and we can physically deliver it to their home address. Um, I think there's peace of mind knowing that, you know, it can eventually arrive to your home or place

of business. And I think that's just a peace of mind that investors want, knowing that the gold is actually there. I think that's so important especially after all of the the gold is the gold there questions that we had going around in the the broader world in this past quarter. I can see how that would be important. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So, um, that's a that's a good strategic partnership because although I don't anticipate a lot of these clients, sort of younger

generation clients actually wanting to get the physical gold, I think there's a piece of mind there knowing that they can get it on demand. Yeah. And and do you have a sense of who the user base is? I know you mentioned of course want to bring in the younger users and I'm wondering is is that happening and maybe if there's anything in particular you're doing to attract younger people because I know I know that's such a big question for the gold market as a whole. How do we bring in

people who are a little bit on the younger side? Yeah. Well, um I I am not a young person myself anymore, but I do understand that the influencers certainly resonate with younger folks. Um and you know, advertising on social media platforms appeals to younger people. So I know they have been involved on the marketing side of things with um with an influencer and definitely getting the messages out to the Tik Toks, the um the Twitters and the Instagrams of this world because that's that's what those younger people

are on and that's that's you know where they go for their information and their news and even for purchases. Yeah, I think of course I think that's the first step is to be where those people are. So that makes complete sense. And so we've been talking about the gold angle here, but I believe people people can also buy silver, they can buy platinum. Are there any points that you would make on those markets because those those are a little bit of course similar to gold given that they're precious metals, but they are

their own different markets as well. Yeah. So at Sprout Money, you can certainly buy uh silver and platinum. Although I must say um the platinum market is is very very small. Our clients haven't really been turned on to platinum. And I would say honestly it's probably 1% of our sales. It's very little. But that being said, what I'm seeing right now is about a 6040 split between gold buying and silver buying. So silver is definitely in favor. people are have it on their radars, they are

buying it and um you know we usually see that 5050 split if not a little bit higher obviously when the price of gold goes up that split uh goes higher for gold. Um but yeah we I think gold sorry I think silver is completely undervalued. I think um given where our gold silver ratio is right now, I think there there's a huge buying opportunity to um to get into the silver space. Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's a a question that I'm seeing a lot among our audience members is, okay, is now actually a

better time for for me to take a look at silver? It's sounding from a lot of people like, yeah, that might be the case right now. Uh yeah. Any anything further you would add? I don't know if you want to I don't know if you go in the the price prediction direction, but do you have a sense on on where prices could be headed in 2025? I I don't really get in the price prediction game. I mean, I know what experts are saying and I know uh you know what I'm reading, but I personally don't tend to make

those predictions because you know what I find is people will hold it to you to it and they'll say, "Oh, you predicted silver was going to go to $300 in a year." And when it doesn't happen, you know, it's it's not I I believe overall that gold and silver have a long way to go given the level of debt in the US, as we talked about before, all the geopolitical risks, the inflationary pressures, um the the weak US dollar. I mean, we're seeing all the all the the points are there, and it's just sort of

we need sort of a a ready, set, go, especially for silver. We we really need it to start moving. Uh, and there's no reason that it shouldn't be much higher. I I agree and I totally understand on the the price prediction angle for sure. I will I will let you go. I think we've had a good overview of what's going on in gold and silver as well as what's happening with Argo and SP money. But before I do, I would ask if you have any any final words you'd leave investors with. I know it's very interesting and

and volatile times right now to to be in the markets. Well, you know, the one thing I would say if I was going to give any advice to anyone is gold and silver. I we talked about silver being cheap and you know, with gold being down about $300 from its high, I'd say now is the time to buy. I I personally take these dips in the market as buying opportunities. And I think our clients see it too. you know, they the the funny line that I always hear from my clients is gold is on sale right now or, you know, silver's on

sale. This is a great time to get in. So, um I think it's a good buying opportunity because if um this China US tariff deal goes through again after 90 days or the US dollar gets beat up a little bit more or we see the markets, you know, u people getting out of the markets, uh equity markets specifically, we will start to see gold sort of rallying again here. Okay. Well, I think that's a really a really good note to end on. So, thank you very much for coming on to go over what's happening in in these sectors. It

was great to have you. Yeah, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure speaking with you, of course. And and once again, I'm Charlotte Mloud with investingnews.com and this is Lissa Sprat. Thank you for watching. If you like this video, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe to our channel. We'd also love to hear your thoughts, so leave us a comment below. [Music]