This Is What I learned at a Gold and Silver Conference in San Francisco
Over the past few days, I was in San Francisco attending the Silver and Gold Summit, hosted by Cambridge House International and Katusa Research. I have been going to this conference for several years now.
Why?
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The Silver and Gold Summit may not be the biggest precious metals and mining conference, and the attendance isn’t as huge as you would see at other major conferences (for example, the PDAC International Convention, Trade Show & Investors Exchange), but it’s very unique. The Silver and Gold Summit is mainly focused on retail investors, and usually a large number of junior miners are profiled. I follow junior precious metal mining companies closely.
Furthermore, it’s hosted in the heart of San Francisco, which is a great city.
Mind you, San Francisco is not really known as an up-and-coming gold and silver mining hub. It’s known for technology. So, at this conference, you tend to get investors who are really interested in precious metals. They are the ones who follow the market closely and tend to be passionate about it.
This year, I would say the summit was one of the most interesting ones I have been to. There were several things I learned while talking to mining company executives, and while participating in workshops. But there was one thing that hands down made me go “hmm…”
It was the debate about Bitcoin and gold.
The overwhelming majority of the speakers at the summit agreed that Bitcoin doesn’t come close to gold whatsoever, and that there could be an outright bubble in Bitcoin right now. Almost every speaker at the conference, however, talked about Bitcoin in one way or another. What was also very interesting was investors’ eagerness toward the cryptocurrency.
There was one workshop that focused on stocks that could be a big hit in this day and age of Bitcoin. It was truly impressive how many investors showed up to this workshop. I don’t know the exact number of individuals who were there, but I know there weren’t any seats left in that workshop, and a lot of people were standing outside of the room, trying to listen. I couldn’t get a seat either, even after showing up on the early side.
Keep in mind, this conference was supposed to be gold- and silver-focused.
Investors Ignoring the Real Deal?
What did I learn from investors’ eagerness about Bitcoin at a precious metal conference?
Investors tend to praise things that are rising in value. Bitcoin has soared several thousand percent in a very short period; investors are getting attracted to it. They don’t seem to be asking questions like: Can the cryptocurrency continue to show similar returns as it has in the past few years? Could it increase another 3,000% from where it currently stands?
What I also learned was that investors could be getting caught up in the hype and forgetting the real deal. There were some solid gold mining and exploration companies at the conference, but not a lot of attention was paid to them. Those companies, however, could be the next millionaire makers.
