Best Gold Brokers

Benzinga readers prefer working with American Hartford Gold or Advantage Gold when they need a gold broker.

Gold has enjoyed a special place in the financial markets for millennia as a store of wealth, a hard currency inflation hedge and a widely accepted medium of exchange. You can protect yourself from rising interest rates, expect the gold price you paid to be outpaced in short order and shelter yourself from a bear market with the stability of gold. In fact, any people look at gold in the same way they do crude oil, expecting it to protect their investments because it’s always in demand.

You’ll want to invest in gold through a reputable online broker. Remember though that not all dealers are created equal, so be sure to carefully consider your needs before opening a brokerage account or retirement account.

Quick Look: Best Gold Brokers

• Best for Gold IRAs, New and Experienced Investors: American Hartford Gold
• Best for Precious Metal and Gold IRA Investing: Advantage Gold
• Best for Price: Vantage Markets
• Best for Multi-Asset Traders: FOREX.com
• Best for Hassle-Free Gold Investment: Bullionz
• Best for Experienced Precious Metals Investors: Preserve Gold
• Best for Diversifying With Gold and Silver: Gold Gate Capital
• Best for Easy-to-Use Platform: Trade Nation

Best Gold Brokers Right Now

While many online brokers will allow you to get involved in gold trading, each of the brokers featured below let you trade in gold in a variety of unique ways. These include gold bullion, coins and a range of other metals along with a Gold IRA. If you wanted to expand your portfolio, you might look at other brokers that will help you invest in gold mining stocks and gold ETFs (exchange-traded funds). As you search for the best gold broker, take a look at this collection from Benzinga.

1. Best for Gold IRAs, New and Experienced Investors: American Hartford Gold

Investing with American Hartford Gold Group allows you to access a family-owned business that offers a wide range of gold and silver coins along with easy setup for Gold IRAs. This is a simple platform to use that could even give you up to $15,000 in free gold and silver storage over the first 3 years you hold your account. Many brokerages simply cannot front you this much cash, and as a wholesaler, you can be sure that American Hartford is passing on the best prices to you.

American Hartford Gold stands out in that is allows you to invest in a more stable asset without becoming an accredited investor. You can also get account support from a gold expert when you have questions.

2. Best for Precious Metal and Gold IRA Investing: Advantage Gold

Advantage Gold has quite a reputation for offering gold investing opportunities that include IRAs and physical gold. This is a simple way to hedge against economic uncertainty, depending on your personal strategy or needs.

You can learn about gold investing on the platform, which is helpful if you are new to this space. Plus, the minimums and fees are competitive, with a $25,000 minimum on the IRA with low annual fees and quality customer support. Investors on this platform buy into IRA-approved gold coins that cover a wide range of styles. You can also invest in silver, platinum or palladium, if you like.

3. Best for Price: Vantage Markets

Vantage Markets is online brokerage that specializes in forex and CFD trading, Vantage Markets provides users with 3 account types and the ability to trade on 9 different markets. They are based in the United Kingdom and offers a wide range of gold products for investors. Vantage Markets has been providing customers with access to gold markets since 2007 and is known for its competitive prices and customer service.

You can trade a wide range of CFD products, including gold, silver, copper, forex, indices, and shares with spreads starting from 0.0 on our RAW account.

4. Best for Multi-Asset Traders: FOREX.com

FOREX.com is a popular gold broker amongst traders and investors due to its wide range of services available. Aside from gold trading, the platform also offers a comprehensive selection of other forex pairs as well as CFDs on stocks, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies depending on your location. Along with competitive pricing, FOREX.com allows clients to enjoy up to 50:1 leverage when trading gold and other assets.

The FOREX.com platform is available in three versions: web, desktop and mobile. The broker's customer service is excellent and available 24/7 via live chat, email and telephone. The support team is knowledgeable and helpful, although the response time could be faster.

Overall, Forex.com provides a reliable gold trading experience with competitive spreads, plenty of trading tools and resources, and an intuitive platform. The broker is best suited for traders who are looking for an all-in-one trading

5. Best for Hassle Free Gold Investment: Bullionz

Bullionz makes it easier to invest in the gold market, while utilizing technology to simplify the process. However, you can invest in something that is more than a traditional gold bar or coin (which is still available.) Digitized tokens allow you to gain exposure to pricing on the gold market, but they also mix well with the gold bars and coins that are also available.

This hassle-free platform offers:

• Access for those in areas or countries that cannot normally invest in gold
• The dashboard is easy to manage
• Investments that start as low as 1 gram
• Insured storage for every user

6. Best for Experienced Precious Metals Investors: Preserve Gold

Investing in precious metals can help you hedge against a down market and diversify, but where will you get the precious metals that you want? When you use Preserve Gold, you can buy into gold, silver, platinum or palladium, depending on the style of your portfolio or your overall strategy. Plus, you can get information from the experts at Preserve Gold so that you always have the best information possible.

There’s also good buyback policies, lifetime support for each account and secure, fast shipping.

7. Best for Diversifying With Gold and Silver: Gold Gate Capital

When you want to make an investment in the precious metals space, it can be difficult to know where to go, what to buy and how. When you invest with Gold Gate Capital, you get more than 15 years of experience in the precious metals industry and access to direct gold and silver investments. You can also create precious metals IRAs for retirement purposes. 

As you invest with Gold Gate, you can hedge against economic turmoil, and you will avail yourself of: 

• Fair pricing
• Unconditional zero-fee buyback commitment
• Massive selection of gold and silver 
• IRS-approved storage facilities
• Gold IRAs

One of the fastest-growing precious metals companies on the market, you can buy in right now, speak to an expert, get your questions answered and expand your portfolio. Just remember that platinum and palladium are currently unavailable.

8. Best for Easy-to-Use Platform: Trade Nation

While Trade Nation is not a traditional gold broker, the platform does allow you to invest laterally in the gold market. For example, you can buy into foreign currencies that are backed by gold. You can invest in gold CFDs and other metal assets that will help to diversify your portfolio. Think of this as another way to branch out without taking massive risks.

Overview: How Investing in Gold Works

As one of the original market commodities to be traded, gold has a long history for both investors and traders alike. The precious metal also often trades in broad sweeping moves that can make it suitable for long and medium-term trading strategies that follow trends, as well as for investors looking for capital appreciation by holding a hard asset.

Shorter-term strategies like day trading and scalping can also be viable in the gold market, although their success can depend on market conditions since they tend to do best in volatile markets. Nevertheless, traders using those relatively active strategies tend to pay more in commissions and dealing spreads than investors who look to buy gold on dips and might hold the metal for years or even decades.

Your gold broker selection may also depend on whether you want a broker to employ a long term investment strategy or a short term trading strategy with. Furthermore, those who wish to invest in gold over the long haul and want to use it as a hard currency if times get tough may wish to take secure physical possession of the product with help from the dealer.

When investing in physical gold, the usual strategy involves waiting for a dip in the gold market to purchase some physical metal. You then just take delivery and hold onto the gold in a very safe place. If the market then rallies to a high point where you think it should then correct lower, you can sell some of your gold and wait for another dip to purchase it back at.

History and Future Outlook of Gold

As a store of wealth and an indestructible inflation hedge, gold has enjoyed an impressive run as one of the most popular hard currencies in history. Even if people lose faith in the value of fiat or paper currencies issued by nations, they will still probably consider gold of at least some value in transactions.

Furthermore, metals like gold often appreciate sharply during troubling geopolitical events that might include outbreaks of war, major elections, military coups, and natural disasters. Even U.S. interest rate changes, central bank reserve changes and gold production-related events can influence gold prices on the global market. 

When unexpected, troubling incidents can notably boost the overall market for these commodities — and especially the price of gold — as investors engage in a desperate flight to quality. Also, since metals like gold have traditionally been considered safe havens in times of economic hardship and social unrest, they can be purchased by investors to serve as a popularly accepted type of hard currency in case an economic breakdown occurs.

With respect to determining gold’s future outlook, performing fundamental and technical analysis are your go-to options. Those interested in investing in gold can also review market sentiment indicators as an important clue to the market’s future direction. A popular sentiment report is put out by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and is known as the Commitment of Traders (COT) report.

Released on Fridays at 3 p.m., the CFTC’s COT report breaks down the long and short open interest in gold futures and options by the type of trader holding the position. Excessive open interest imbalances tend to suggest a market reversal may be forthcoming.

What to Look for in a Gold Dealer or Broker

Every online broker offers different services and tradable products, so be sure to choose one with the best features among those you require. You will also want to look out for the following items to make sure a broker measures up adequately as you are reviewing your prospective choices.

Strict Regulation

Any online gold dealer should be overseen by a major financial regulatory agency. These might include the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), or the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA) in the United States.

Also, brokers regulated in European countries need to comply with the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and its more recent revision the MiFIR. These regulatory agencies are especially helpful when purchasing physical gold because you are generally sidestepping the U.S. Mint or Federal Reserve by purchasing through a third party.

Good Platform

Any good online broker should provide trading via a software platform that is easy and free to use. If the platform, like those above, sells physical gold or handles gold IRAs, you need to make sure that you have easy access to your account and can reach the customer support team readily.

While many online brokers have their own proprietary platforms, most will also gold market access via the popular MetaTrader 4 or 5 platforms from MetaQuotes. This platform is the market standard, and it allows traders to draw and trade from price charts, perform technical analysis, review financial news, backtest strategies, create custom indicators and even automate their trading.

Minimal Spreads, Commissions or Fees

While spreads and fees will not affect long term traders or investors greatly, the profitability of those using active short term trading strategies can be significantly impacted by high charges of this type. It therefore makes sense to inquire about any trading, fund transfer or gold storage charges that may apply to your activities.

Decent Research

A good quality gold dealer or broker will often have their own research department providing fundamental and technical analysis to help clients inform their trading and investment activities. Discount gold dealers typically have fewer offerings in this regard than full service brokers.

Competent Customer Service

Traders and investors may need to contact their broker quickly in case of an error or with an important question. Any gold dealer should have a good and responsive customer service department with a live chat function, phone access, email support and a comprehensive FAQ to answer common questions. They can work with you on anything from the market price of gold to the top pick of the day, spot prices on unique precious metals in which they might traffic, etc.

This is especially important if you are investing in physical gold products that must be stored and may be difficult to conceptualize, even if you can quickly glance at your account. Some investors might also split up coin inventory from the trading platform where they hold stocks, bonds, etc. Having easy access to both firms makes it much easier for you to keep track of where your money is going.

Add More Gold to Your Investment Portfolio

If you wish to invest in gold stocks, gold ETFs, gold futures, gold options and more, you can turn to an online broker that will give you access to the non-physical gold market. You may run across a CFD broker that allows you to invest in unique instruments, or you could buy stock in mining companies, invest in the spot price of gold, improve your retirement investment, buy into a futures contract and gain access to all the other aspects of the stock market that you need.

Invest in Gold With Wisdom Today

After you’ve decided on your gold trading or investment objectives, you will have determined whether having a gold dealer or broker makes sense because you can either buy into physical gold or gold intangible gold assets.

If you do decide to use a gold dealer, make sure they offer the products that you truly wish to compile. If you need an investment house that allows you to invest in gold, you can check out those who provide the gold related instruments you most wish to trade, which might include spot gold, gold CFDs, gold futures and options, gold mining stocks, gold ETFs, gold bullion, gold coins, gold IRAs and more. Once you have found the best gold dealer or broker for your needs, you can test your trading plan using a demo account funded with virtual money or ask the customer support team how certain purchases will support your portfolio.

Frequently Asked Questions

Looking for more information on trading commodities? Check out Benzinga's guides on how to invest in commodities, how to invest in silver, and our picks for the best commodity ETFs.