The periodic table represents the earth’s known chemical elements, and some of them make excellent investments. Rare earth metals, along with a selection of elements known as base and precious metals, provide today’s investors and active traders with a variety of trading opportunities. They’re also often formed into ingots for physical purchases.
Investors can participate in the base metals market by buying shares of companies like U.S. Steel, futures, options, and various ETFs.
Precious metals provide the widest range of opportunities for investors, with mining companies, ETFs for both stocks and the metals themselves, options, futures, and even direct purchases of physical metals.
As rare earth metals became more important to both technology and the economy, investors became more interested in shares of rare earth producing companies and related ETFs.
The concept of selling equity in companies was popularized as early as the 16th century, when governments that issued charters to businesses also began selling shares in these businesses to interested retail investors. When new democratic ideas helped inform free market principles in the US and beyond, regulations led to the formation of exchanges like the NYSE, where buyers and sellers can meet and come to an agreement on the price of a company’s shares. Derivatives, indices, and secondary markets later emerged, shaping the investing environment we enjoy today.
Base metals are widely available and are used in a variety of commercial and industrial applications. These applications include copper plumbing, aluminum cans, and the steel used in automobile production. Due to their abundance, base metals are significantly less expensive than both precious and rare earth metals. Their prices respond to changes in demand for the products for which the metals are used.
Precious metals are naturally occurring metallic chemical elements that have a high luster and melting point. They are softer and more ductile than other metals, and less reactive than most elements. Precious metals include silver (Ag), gold (Au), platinum (Pt), and palladium (Pd). Because of their scarcity, precious metals are valuable—much more so than the base metals. They are used for jewelry, art, coins, dental work, medical devices, electronics, and investment purposes.
