I distinctly remember an encounter I had in 2017.
I was getting a suit I had just bought tailored when small talk eventually came to the subject of what I did for a living, as that sort of small talk tends to.
When I told the tailor that I worked for a financial newsletter, he then asked me what I thought about Bitcoin.
This was in early December, just before Bitcoin hit its peak and then took a nosedive.
And I often think back to that day and the Wall Street urban legend about Joe Kennedy and the shoeshine boy.
It’s one of those stories that you know, even if you’ve never heard it.
Joe Kennedy Sr., father of JFK, a man on the path to building his family’s fortune, stopped for a shoeshine one day. As the job was being done, Kennedy and the boy shining his shoes began making small talk. The conversation eventually touched on the stock market, at which point the shoeshine boy made his opinion known on which stocks were the right ones to buy.
It was at that point that Joe Sr. knew it was time to get out of the market.
As it happens, this event supposedly occurred in or around 1929, the year the Great Depression started.
Joe Sr. saw this as a sign that the market was at a top and decided to begin unloading his holdings.
The rest, as they say, is history.
And history, as they say, has a way of repeating itself.
The Cycle Continues
Whether the story with Joseph Kennedy Sr. happened or not is beside the point. What it does is point to a trend that is seen time and again. Sometimes it’s the broader market. Sometimes it’s cryptocurrency. Sometimes it’s one commodity or another.
You can fill in the blank with any asset, but once it becomes the item of the day in the financial news cycle, it’s only a matter of time before you’re hearing about it from the last person you’d expect to be talking about it.
Another anecdote: On a recent visit to the gym, one of the channels on the line of televisions was playing a commercial for a company offering free guides on how to stash personal wealth in gold coins in light of recent global financial turmoil.
This was something that was common as recently as 10 years ago, and it’s made its way back around.
These services often tout the idea that one needs a stockpile of gold coins to weather hard times that are just around the corner.
It’s likewise the same for the cable news talking heads.
The usual suspects of CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, and others have been putting out articles and airing segments either asking if it’s time to own gold or telling you it’s time to own gold. With every passing day, the yellow metal is on more minds and news of its climb is reaching more ears.
It’s only a matter of time before you’re talking about it with your barber, your mailman, or your bartender.
That is to say, the fever pitch hasn’t been hit yet, but we’ll get to that point before you know it.
Not Wrong, But Not Totally Right
There is some truth to all this talk of gold. The finances of countries all over the world are on the decline, currencies are losing value, and personal wealth needs to be protected because of it.
Because of those facts, it’s true that investors need a safe haven. Gold has traditionally been that safe haven in the past and will be this time around as well. But with the bull market that is likely ahead, there are better places to put your money than the piles of gold coins pundits and TV pitchmen are trying to sell you.
It’s something Nick Hodge has been talking about since long before word of gold’s comeback hit the TV airwaves. The solution he’s found won’t just store your wealth, it has the potential to help it grow as the broad market continues to degrade.
I can’t say whether or not the talking heads will ever catch on to this part of the gold bull market, but you can learn more about it here. By the time your tailor or your shoeshine boy (if you have one) brings it up, you’ll already have made your money.
Keep your eyes open,
Ryan Stancil
Contributing Editor, Outsider Club
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