Remember that whole "everything's getting more expensive" thing? Inflation? Yeah, it might be making a comeback. So, how do we deal with that as investors? That's where the "inflation trade" comes in.

Think of it like this: imagine your money is a bag of chips. Inflation is like someone slowly sneaking fries into that bag. You still have the same bag, but it's not worth as much.

The Inflation Trade

The inflation trade is about fighting back. It's about swapping your chips for things that tend to hold their value, or even go up, when prices rise. Here's the lowdown:

Swapping Your Portfolio: Investors ditch stuff that inflation eats away at (like cash) and grab things that tend to do well when prices climb. This could be stuff like gold, real estate, or even certain stocks.
Commodities as Bodyguards: Imagine gold as your financial bodyguard. When inflation goes up, gold prices often follow. So, it can help protect your money's worth.
Currency Dodgeball: Some folks use fancy financial tools to avoid getting whacked by inflation that weakens their currency. Basically, they bet on how currencies will trade against each other.
Interest Rates: The Party Crashers: Inflation can make central banks raise interest rates. This can be bad news for some investments, like bonds, but it's not all doom and gloom.

The stock market can actually handle some inflation okay. Companies might even make more money if they can raise their prices without scaring away customers. But, not all stocks are created equal. Some industries, like energy or materials, might even benefit from rising prices.

Here's the catch: if inflation gets too crazy, central banks might slam on the brakes with those interest rate hikes. This can hurt the stock market in general.

Gold Futures Prices On The Rise

Men have always been willing to go for broke to get their hands on gold and silver. In many cases it didn't come easy. For others, being in the right place at the right time paid off.

There have been many times that the word got out of a gold strike and families packed up and headed across country to find their fortunes as gold futures prices skyrocketed.

This time line takes you through the history of many such times. The eras of miners risking it all to get gold. After everything they did to get there, no matter how minute the amount, it was all they had to hold on to.

Did you know that all of the gold in the world has a value of 8.5 trillion dollars? This precious metal is one of the most sought after in the entire world, but there are some 165,000 metric tons of it available on this planet.

With about 7 billion people on the planet, there is less than one ounce of gold per person available. That being said, gold production has increased by 210% from 1959 to 2010. In that same period of time human population increased by 220%. Thus, we are just barely outpacing the amount of gold available, and this means that the less than one ounce figure remains true.

Nearly 52% of the gold in the world is used in jewelry while 34% remains in holdings and investments. Only 12% gets used for industrial purposes. We obviously value wearing and trading gold far more than we value actually using it.

Gold is Still Rising, Passes 1300

Gold is still a buy according to Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors, today. He notes that Gold and Silver are lagging other commodities when adjusting their 1980 prices for inflation. This is even with the incredible run Gold has had over the past two years, hitting a new high today. He prices Gold at $2,300 an ounce if properly adjusted to inflation.He feels that Gold could double over the next 5 years. Sounds like the opinion of many analyst at the end of the Dot Com Bubble right before the bubble burst.