In the last couple of years, gold and silver have exploded into the investment scene once again. Because of economic instability, high government debts, and inflationary monetary policies, gold and silver have shot up and exploded in value.

This has led to many investors — both consumers and institutional investors — to look into investing in gold and silver in order to find profits and financial security.

One of the most common ways to invest in gold is through the gold exchange-traded-fund — essentially a way to quickly put your portfolio into gold by acquiring shares of funds that have physical gold holdings.

There are plenty of different gold ETFs and different types, companies and regions you can focus on. Here’s a short list of the different types and companies that investors have to choose from:

Benchmark gold ETF. A benchmark gold ETF fund is one where the value of the fund’s shares go up and down directly in correlation to the gold spot prices themselves. If gold’s value goes up 15%, then a benchmark gold ETF will increase at roughly the same amount.

Leveraged gold ETF. A leveraged gold ETF is one that is based on magnifying the ups and downs of the price of gold. For example, if you have a 3x gold etf, then if the price of gold goes up 30%, your ETF shares will go up about 90%. If you think gold is going up, this can be a risky way to get big profits.

Physical gold ETF. A physical gold ETF is one that has actual physical gold on hand which is where the price of the shares comes from. Rather than being an intrinsic kind of “derivative”, these are a little closer to buying straight-up gold bullion. Some think this is a little less risky.

There are plenty of companies that provide access to gold investing via an exchange-traded fund.

Some include the GLD gold ETF, SBI gold ETF, Kotak gold ETF. Barclays gold ETF, SPDR gold ETF, Axis gold ETF, Comex gold ETF, and the Canadian gold ETF. Whew.

And that’s just the start — there are plenty of more options, and we’ll be writing about those more in the future, so make sure to check back later for more updates.

Future articles will discuss some politically incorrect aspects of gold investing, gold ETFs, and the gold market. Make sure to return to this website to read the future informative articles.