Bartering for goods was the first way things and services were paid for many years ago. At some point in time many thousands of years ago, man liked the way gold looked. Its shiny character was admired and men wanted to own it. Procession of gold meant the person had wealth. As time moved on, coins were made for the different weights of gold to make exchanges easier. On today’s gold market, pure bullion gold is sold on 1 ounce increments.

There are mutual funds that purchase gold like the SPDR Gold Trust ETF. This makes it possible for investors to buy and trade their gold stock without having to actually possess the gold itself.

Many countries around the world are still minting gold bullion coins. There are several that are of pure gold while others are only 90% gold. The pureness of the gold content in the coin is one of the factors that determine the price. Another is form where the gold coin is minted. The American gold eagle has the same gold content as other coins, but is sold at a higher price.

One of the oldest ways to invest in gold other than raw nuggets is to buy gold jewelry. This is sold by karat. 24K is pure gold and not many jewelers work with it. The most common is 18 K. This is ¾ th pure gold.

No matter if you know how to invest in gold or not, by owning gold, you can know the value by looking at the current gold prices on the gold market and know its worth.

As with all investment markets, the spot gold price will vary from moment to moment. The right time to jump in and the right time to pull out is the personal choice of the investor. You are good if you do it right 60% of the time. No one is right all the time.

This past year the fluctuation has been a little more than in the past 5 years, if looked at in trends. For almost 3 years the price rose steadily with only one major correction in 2006. But the past 5 years has seen a rise from $391.9 to a high of $1002.80. The past two years the swing has been more fluctuating up and down. This past year the there has been almost a $300 swing upwards.

The smart investor should take some risks, but not all the time. Going in and out with your money is a smart move. Always having some is good but never all of it for too long of a time. Remember the greater the profit possibility the greater the risk and possible loss. There are no guarantees in this market except that the market will always fluctuate. The trend is up and has been for 10 years. A long term investor would have made a great deal of money but eventually this market will see a large correction, just like it always does. If you have too much in the market at that time, you could lose all of what you gained.

Be careful the spot gold price is the selling and buying price.   The current gold price is on the way up but for how long is just a guess.

This has been the current trend, which even when there is a slight decline in the current gold prices, the decline will not last long. The last decline lasted 3 weeks. This decline lasted less than a week beginning on Tuesday and ending before the close on Friday for a change from a closing low of $931 on Tuesday to a close on Friday of $954.50. This is an increase of $23.5 per ounce.

As a good example of the possible profit, if 1000 ounces of gold were purchased on Tuesday, by Friday a profit of $23500 would have been achieved. That is only a 2.5% change but the possibility of profit does exist. The opposite is also true and there are real risks with the fluctuation of gold prices just like any financial market.

The current gold prices today are on the move up in a roller coast fashion. Picking the right time to invest along with the right time to sell is partly luck but also experience. Since the money being invested it yours, you should decide the appropriate time for yourself.

The gold price has not returned to the high it had obtained back at the beginning of June, which was at over $980 but the good news is that it is not at the low for the year either. This was when the current prices for gold was at $810 on January 15, 2009.

No one can correctly predict when the current gold prices will be back up that far, but the trend is that it will be in the future, probably within a year. But the gold prices today are at $954.9 and climbing since I started this article.