Physical vs. Artificial: Two Types of Metals Investing
Ben Mitchell • August 16, 2019
I talk with a lot of precious metals investors who come into buying gold and silver excited about applying some of the short term trading concepts that we talk about at most of our TRADEway events, to gold and silver. They're excited about taking advantage of the upside potential that they hear about all the time, whether it's on a radio show, TV commercials, or anything on TV.
Here at TRADEway, we like to put a little bit of a different spin on it. We like to divide precious metals into two different categories and then apply certain trading mindsets or concepts to those categories.
Physical Gold and Silver
Physical gold and silver includes bars, coins, and things like that. Our TradeWay precious metals division puts most of its emphasis on how to utilize those kinds of investments to preserve the money that you've worked hard for, that you're saving to pass down to the next generation, whether that's an inheritance or just preserving some of your funds within a portfolio. That's what physical gold and silver is used for.
We show you how to be cost effective when buying coins and bars. We talk about “hyper-longterm investing”. It's a funny sounding concept, but it's something that we've been utilizing within our family for three generations and we teach you exactly how to do that in the precious metals course that we offer.
Artificial Precious Metals
There is another category of precious metals investing as well, “artificial precious metals”. This includes gold and silver shares that you can invest in, on the comex or the commodities exchange. That would include gold and silver ETFs, gold and silver stocks, mining stocks, things like that. It provides you a way to be exposed to the precious metals market but apply short term trading concepts without having to compromise the more long term trading concepts that we teach when it comes to buying the physical gold and silver.
If that's more of what you're interested in doing, you may think about more of the artificial side of things. Whether that's the GLD ETF, SIVR, which are a couple of the ETFs for gold and silver, and then of course, there's gold and silver stocks, mining stocks, and in some cases, depending on the trading platform that you use, you can purchase shares of gold and silver from the commodity exchange and trade them more in the short term in that regard.
Keep that in mind. If you're an excited precious metals investor, coming in and wanting to take advantage of that upside potential, think about dividing them into those categories and applying certain long term trading mindsets, or concepts, to the physical side of things and then more short term concepts to the artificial.
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By Ben Mitchell
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Today we’re going to be talking about some things to consider before you buy gold or bars. We’re going to cover differences in price, liquidity and resale value. Let’s get into it! 
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If you’re losing money trading, it’s probably because of one of these three things you need to quit doing. Many traders are addicted to more–more trades, more screens, more stress. What’s the problem with that? Sometimes it’s the fastest way to blow up your account. Hi, my name is Matt Mitchell. I’ve been trading for seven years and I absolutely love it. I’m also a Personal Strategist here at TRADEway. And today I want to share with you three things I quit doing to make more money trading.
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The long-term investing industry hasn’t really changed that much in the last 50 years as far as their message goes: ”Don’t worry about bear market crashes, just stay the course…” Many people argue that the average person on the street would be way better off if they just bought the S&P 500 and held it rather than trying to buy and sell individual stocks themselves. Well, that may be absolutely true if you have zero trading skillsets. But if you do have the kind of trading skillsets that TRADEway teaches, then the old line philosophy of buy and hold isn’t the best strategy for you. In today’s episode we’re talking about some common myths that buy-and-hold-ers propagate. Let’s get into this important discussion… 
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The long-term investing industry hasn’t really changed that much in the last 50 years as far as their message goes: ”Don’t worry about bear market crashes, just stay the course…” Many people argue that the average person on the street would be way better off if they just bought the S&P 500 and held it rather than trying to buy and sell individual stocks themselves. Well, that may be absolutely true if you have zero trading skillsets. But if you do have the kind of trading skillsets that TRADEway teaches, then the old line philosophy of buy and hold isn’t the best strategy for you. In today’s episode we’re talking about some common myths that buy-and-hold-ers propagate. Let’s get into this important discussion…
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Today we’re going to be talking about some things to consider before you buy gold or bars. We’re going to cover differences in price, liquidity and resale value. Let’s get into it! 
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•
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Today we’re going to be talking about some things to consider before you buy gold or bars. We’re going to cover differences in price, liquidity and resale value. Let’s get into it!
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If you’re losing money trading, it’s probably because of one of these three things you need to quit doing. Many traders are addicted to more–more trades, more screens, more stress. What’s the problem with that? Sometimes it’s the fastest way to blow up your account. Hi, my name is Matt Mitchell. I’ve been trading for seven years and I absolutely love it. I’m also a Personal Strategist here at TRADEway. And today I want to share with you three things I quit doing to make more money trading.
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•
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Did you know that 80-90% of stock traders fail? This might look like pretty terrible odds at first, but don’t let this statistic scare you. In this episode, I’m going to show you how to be the exception. Let’s look at the seven most common reasons why traders give up.
By David Mitchell
•
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Did you know that 80-90% of stock traders fail? This might look like pretty terrible odds at first, but don’t let this statistic scare you. In this episode, I’m going to show you how to be the exception. Let’s look at the seven most common reasons why traders give up. 
By David Mitchell
•
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The long-term investing industry hasn’t really changed that much in the last 50 years as far as their message goes: ”Don’t worry about bear market crashes, just stay the course…” Many people argue that the average person on the street would be way better off if they just bought the S&P 500 and held it rather than trying to buy and sell individual stocks themselves. Well, that may be absolutely true if you have zero trading skillsets. But if you do have the kind of trading skillsets that TRADEway teaches, then the old line philosophy of buy and hold isn’t the best strategy for you. In today’s episode we’re talking about some common myths that buy-and-hold-ers propagate. Let’s get into this important discussion… 
By David Mitchell
•
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The long-term investing industry hasn’t really changed that much in the last 50 years as far as their message goes: ”Don’t worry about bear market crashes, just stay the course…” Many people argue that the average person on the street would be way better off if they just bought the S&P 500 and held it rather than trying to buy and sell individual stocks themselves. Well, that may be absolutely true if you have zero trading skillsets. But if you do have the kind of trading skillsets that TRADEway teaches, then the old line philosophy of buy and hold isn’t the best strategy for you. In today’s episode we’re talking about some common myths that buy-and-hold-ers propagate. Let’s get into this important discussion…
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•
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We all know that feeling… A trade is going well and you’re feeling elated anticipating taking profits. And then out of seemingly nowhere, it tanks. Man, it’s frustrating! And if this has happened to you–maybe once, maybe many times–just know, you’re not alone. You might be wondering, why did this happen? It turns out there are three common reasons why trades stop working. Once you learn these three reasons it will be easier for you to analyze your past trades and figure out what went wrong. But more importantly, once you learn these three reasons why trades stop working, you’ll be better able to prevent a trade from going south in the first place, because you’ll start to recognize the warning signs. So let’s dive in. Here are three most common reasons why people’s trades stop working.
By Dave Huber
•
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We all know that feeling… A trade is going well and you’re feeling elated anticipating taking profits. And then out of seemingly nowhere, it tanks. Man, it’s frustrating! And if this has happened to you–maybe once, maybe many times–just know, you’re not alone. You might be wondering, why did this happen? It turns out there are three common reasons why trades stop working. Once you learn these three reasons it will be easier for you to analyze your past trades and figure out what went wrong. But more importantly, once you learn these three reasons why trades stop working, you’ll be better able to prevent a trade from going south in the first place, because you’ll start to recognize the warning signs. So let’s dive in. Here are three most common reasons why people’s trades stop working.
By Ben Mitchell
•
January 19, 2026
Today we’re going to be talking about some things to consider before you buy gold or bars. We’re going to cover differences in price, liquidity and resale value. Let’s get into it! 
By Ben Mitchell
•
January 19, 2026
Today we’re going to be talking about some things to consider before you buy gold or bars. We’re going to cover differences in price, liquidity and resale value. Let’s get into it!
By Matt Mitchell
•
January 6, 2026
If you’re losing money trading, it’s probably because of one of these three things you need to quit doing. Many traders are addicted to more–more trades, more screens, more stress. What’s the problem with that? Sometimes it’s the fastest way to blow up your account. Hi, my name is Matt Mitchell. I’ve been trading for seven years and I absolutely love it. I’m also a Personal Strategist here at TRADEway. And today I want to share with you three things I quit doing to make more money trading.
By Matt Mitchell
•
January 6, 2026
If you’re losing money trading, it’s probably because of one of these three things you need to quit doing. Many traders are addicted to more–more trades, more screens, more stress. What’s the problem with that? Sometimes it’s the fastest way to blow up your account. Hi, my name is Matt Mitchell. I’ve been trading for seven years and I absolutely love it. I’m also a Personal Strategist here at TRADEway. And today I want to share with you three things I quit doing to make more money trading.
By David Mitchell
•
December 8, 2025
Did you know that 80-90% of stock traders fail? This might look like pretty terrible odds at first, but don’t let this statistic scare you. In this episode, I’m going to show you how to be the exception. Let’s look at the seven most common reasons why traders give up.
By David Mitchell
•
December 8, 2025
Did you know that 80-90% of stock traders fail? This might look like pretty terrible odds at first, but don’t let this statistic scare you. In this episode, I’m going to show you how to be the exception. Let’s look at the seven most common reasons why traders give up. 
By David Mitchell
•
November 24, 2025
The long-term investing industry hasn’t really changed that much in the last 50 years as far as their message goes: ”Don’t worry about bear market crashes, just stay the course…” Many people argue that the average person on the street would be way better off if they just bought the S&P 500 and held it rather than trying to buy and sell individual stocks themselves. Well, that may be absolutely true if you have zero trading skillsets. But if you do have the kind of trading skillsets that TRADEway teaches, then the old line philosophy of buy and hold isn’t the best strategy for you. In today’s episode we’re talking about some common myths that buy-and-hold-ers propagate. Let’s get into this important discussion… 
By David Mitchell
•
November 24, 2025
The long-term investing industry hasn’t really changed that much in the last 50 years as far as their message goes: ”Don’t worry about bear market crashes, just stay the course…” Many people argue that the average person on the street would be way better off if they just bought the S&P 500 and held it rather than trying to buy and sell individual stocks themselves. Well, that may be absolutely true if you have zero trading skillsets. But if you do have the kind of trading skillsets that TRADEway teaches, then the old line philosophy of buy and hold isn’t the best strategy for you. In today’s episode we’re talking about some common myths that buy-and-hold-ers propagate. Let’s get into this important discussion…
By Dave Huber
•
November 10, 2025
We all know that feeling… A trade is going well and you’re feeling elated anticipating taking profits. And then out of seemingly nowhere, it tanks. Man, it’s frustrating! And if this has happened to you–maybe once, maybe many times–just know, you’re not alone. You might be wondering, why did this happen? It turns out there are three common reasons why trades stop working. Once you learn these three reasons it will be easier for you to analyze your past trades and figure out what went wrong. But more importantly, once you learn these three reasons why trades stop working, you’ll be better able to prevent a trade from going south in the first place, because you’ll start to recognize the warning signs. So let’s dive in. Here are three most common reasons why people’s trades stop working.
By Dave Huber
•
November 10, 2025
We all know that feeling… A trade is going well and you’re feeling elated anticipating taking profits. And then out of seemingly nowhere, it tanks. Man, it’s frustrating! And if this has happened to you–maybe once, maybe many times–just know, you’re not alone. You might be wondering, why did this happen? It turns out there are three common reasons why trades stop working. Once you learn these three reasons it will be easier for you to analyze your past trades and figure out what went wrong. But more importantly, once you learn these three reasons why trades stop working, you’ll be better able to prevent a trade from going south in the first place, because you’ll start to recognize the warning signs. So let’s dive in. Here are three most common reasons why people’s trades stop working.