If you find yourself constantly asking, “What’s the price of gold?” then you need to add a few sites to your bookmarks or download a few apps. All investors should have a direct link to the markets, one that keeps them informed about the current price of gold every minute of every day. Luckily, there are many options out there that can help with this.

Stay up to Date

There are many ways that you can keep an eye on the price of gold. These include apps for your iOS or Android device. There are dozens of these available, including several very good free ones. So, while some of these apps do charge money, you do not need to pay money to get some good, real-time updates. Some of our favorite apps are created by KitCo, and there are a number of these available. The most popular include simple free apps that will keep you updated on the price of gold, silver, platinum, palladium and copper, while also keeping you up to date with the Indexes and some major stocks. These apps are customizable, allowing you to change currencies and more, but they are also full of ads, which is often the case with free apps.

You can also find websites that will update you on the price of gold, and ones that also contain a number of charts and historical data on gold and other precious metals. However, the best way to stay up to date, is to simply use a bullion dealer, whether you purchase from there or not. One of the most accessible sites for info on gold, both historical and present, is JM Bullion.

This is our go-to site when we want to check the price of gold or some other data, and it is also the go-to site for many other investors. We actually use JM Bullion to make purchases from time to time, as their free shipping and wide selection of gold makes them the ideal choice. But even when we’re looking to buy from another site, whether we want to browse the wide range of silver at a website like SD Silver or we want to buy from a storage company like GoldBroker, we still use JM Bullion to stay up to date. This might have something to do with familiarity, and the fact that we’re used to the way JM Bullion display things, but we also feel that they are clearer and more concise in this area than any other dealer.

The Price of Gold

At the beginning of 2015, the price of gold was close to $1,300 an ounce, and many were predicting that this would increase even further, as is usually the case. However, 2015 was not a good year for gold, and by the end of the year, close to $300 had been wiped off the value of an ounce. There were many reasons for this, but the main one was the fact that the Chinese markets had suffered. Usually, when the stock markets go into decline, the price of gold goes up. However, when the Chinese markets went into a decline during 2015, gold lost one of its biggest buyers.

The Chinese are one of the biggest consumers of gold, and not just as a way of investing. Gold is culturally significant in China, especially around the Chinese New Year, at which point a lot of gifts of gold are given, typically in the form of watches, jewelry and bullion. With the Chinese markets suffering, and with businesses in decline, many citizens that had previously experienced a great deal of fortune were now threatened with poverty. As a result, they stopped splashing the cash, and the gold markets suffered as a result.

Luckily, as we moved into 2016, it looked like the worst was over and within a few months, gold was back near $1,300 an ounce again. Not only was this precious metal looking good, but it was dragging silver and platinum with it, which has always been a good sign and usually signals massive improvements in the market.

As this article is being written, gold is hovering around $1250 an ounce, but the future is looking promising for this precious metal.

Conclusion

It is essential that you stay up to date with the price of gold, because only then can you monitor the rises and falls. Typically, gold is not as volatile as silver, so you can’t always profit from the slightest changes, but if anything major does happen, if gold begins to plummet, then you can sell off your stock. Conversely, if it starts to rise, you can buy more and benefit from those gains when they occur.