Now everybody knows what is gold but what are options, you may ask. (If you do not know what is gold I have no idea which planet you come from, but I will talk a little bit about gold in the next section of this hub!) Well, options are a painless and less risky way to earn money from the stock market. By buying an option on a stock, you can make big profits just from a small down payment! Well discussing about options is not really the subject of this hub so this is all I will talk about options for now and do stay tuned when my hub about investing and making money using options comes about! But wait, so what about Gold Futures Options or Gold Options? What are they?

Before diving into Gold Futures Options or Gold Options, let’s first talk about Gold!

Gold is an extremely vital industrial commodity. I am sure every household has some gold, in the form of jewellery on your mother wife or grandma, or maybe in your computer circuit boards!!! (Hmm is there gold there?) Gold is an excellent conductor of electricity, is extremely resistant to corrosion, supposedly one of the hardest substances in the world and is one of the most chemically stable elements, making it critically important in electronics and other high-tech equipments.

For centuries, gold has been looked upon as a rare and luxurious metal. Countries or civilisations look to gold as wealth and used it as a form of currency exchange (the old USA for example backed its currency to gold). People hoard gold and love gold. (Pirates love gold too! Gimme my treasure!) North America was once the world's major gold supplier with many gold lodes discovered in the highlands. Today, the main gold producing countries include South Africa, Russia, Indonesia, Australia, China and Canada in addition to the USA.

The USA put her currency on a bimetallic standard (backing it with gold and silver) in 1792. During the Great Depression, most nations had to unback their currency from gold to stabilize their economies. It was only in 1944 when gold reentered the world's monetary system, when the Bretton Woods agreement fixed all paper currencies in relation to the US dollar which in turn was tied to gold. This agreement was in force till 1971, when it was cancelled by President Nixon. Today, the price of gold depends on both supply and demand, and fluctuates according to political and economic events.

And then of course came Gold Futures Options and Gold Options! What not so soon but perhaps after gold mining companies started to have stocks and with stocks then came Gold Futures Options and Gold Options...you get the drift?

Ok now back to the story. Where were we? Ah yes, Gold Futures Options or what others may call it, Gold Options. Now if we can buy options to make money from the stock market, this can also apply to the explosive gold and metals market! Notice that if we search for options on major gold miners, you can make use of only a small rise in the price of shares with regards to the gold miners and turn it into a massive gain. Hence the reason why I am urging you to invest in Gold Futures Options or Gold Options.

Maybe you own some gold stocks and you are worried about losing some of your gains if the market turns bear or if there is a correction in oil prices or maybe the US dollar went up. Some people will just hold on to the gold stock, thinking that they are in it for the long term. But you know what? Gold stocks can fall a lot, and that includes during a typical correction as well, so it is really not advisable to hold on to these gold stocks.

But do you know that there are other ways to improve your long-term returns? Do you know that you can reduce the impact of market volatility on your stocks portfolio without even needing to trade your shares and risk getting out of the bull market too early? Guess what I am proposing here? Options! Yes Options! Gold Futures Options and Gold Options! Options allow investors to take advantage of leverage and limit their risk. Options are traded differently compared to regular stocks, and knowing the specific strike prices and expiration dates would be very important for the investor to make big profits!

Gold Futures Options and Gold Options allow investors to benefit from the change in the value of the underlying shares without the need to purchase the shares. Due to this leverage, options can sometimes increase hundreds and thousands of percent in the space of a week, or even a day!

Yes, you should invest in gold! First of all, it is important to create a diversified portfolio, and gold would be a good addition to whatever investments you have right now! If you are not into gold right now, it is time to do some buying!

Now let me first get your attention by saying that gold stocks were up 489% in the last three years. Yes that is right, almost 5 times their original values! I am not just talking about the results of a few good gold mining stocks but this figure refers to the entire gold mining index (the Gold BUGS Index), which makes up 15 of the world’s major gold stocks.

And that is not all. The price of gold itself is now over 50% higher from its low in 1999. Gold coins are up 70% in the last three years, and Gold Options or Gold Futures Options have soared. People who have invested in gold are probably laughing all the way to the bank now! Gold is also cheap compared to stocks. Governments can print money but they cannot print gold! The supply of gold is therefore limited. Gold can also still perform well during bear markets. With so many benefits of investing in gold, it is time you look into getting some Gold Options or Gold Futures Options!

If you are a person of the past, perhaps you would be more keen to invest in gold such as bullion or coins. When there was a stock market, some people would invest in mining stocks. Then there are other people who invest in gold futures contracts. These are also valuable trading tools for commercial producers and users of the metal. But if you ask me, I would advise you to make money from Gold Futures Options or Gold Options.

Let us first look at what are some of the ways you can invest in gold.

1. Investing in mining stocks

An investor can purchase junior mining stocks (exploration companies) or blue chip mining stocks. For those exploration companies, the odds are that only one in ten thousand exploration companies will find a mine, bring it into production and produce gold! In addition, the cost of finding and developing a gold mine is not cheap. Hence generally, it is not advisable to purchase junior mining stocks. Blue chip mining stocks are a safer bet since they already have many mines operating and cash is being made by the companies. These blue chip mining companies may choose to buy out junior mining companies that have made a discovery. Sounds like the rich getting richer if you ask me!

2. Gold stock mutual funds

If you do not like investing directly into mining stocks, maybe I can interest you in buying a gold stock mutual fund (If you do not know much about Mutual Funds, you might want to look at my mutual fund definition hub first). This is seriously a good way to invest in gold, since by buying a mutual fund, your investments are further diversified. If you do not know what mining stocks to buy, gold stock mutual funds are the way to go.

3. Investment grade rare coins or Raw gold (bullion or bars)

If you are not into stocks or mutual funds, then I would recommend buying investment grade rare coins or raw gold (bullion or bars). While gold stocks are up by about 500% now, investment grade rare gold coins are now only up by about 70% (these coins peaked in value in 1989, but bottomed out in 2001, thus downside is pretty much limited). If you do not want to buy coins, maybe you would be interested in common gold coins or small bars of gold. Common gold coins are known as ‘bullion’ coins. These include popular coins like Krugerrands or Canadian Maple Leafs, and they cost just a few dollars more than the current price of gold. The price of these coins would move with the price of gold.

Other than the above 3 methods for an investor to invest in gold, finally I shall talk about investing in Gold Futures Options or Gold Options. Buying Gold Futures Options or Gold Optionsis your key to creating massive profits! Imagine making thousands of percent in these options in a gold bull market! I shall not lie to you but tell you that this is risky and it is possible that you may lose all your money.

One of the places where gold options are traded is bullion banks. To trade options at such banks however, would require you to have open an account as a private banking client, which may take some time. A list of bullion banks is available from the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Another way of trading options would be through the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, non-US residents would have to check if they can trade gold options similar to trading foreign exchange. A third method would be to simply contact a futures broker and request to buy Gold Futures Options or Gold Options through him. Certain spread-betting companies do trade gold options.

This is the end of my hub sadly. Go forth and buy some Gold Futures Options and Gold Options now!