Platinum is catching a lot of attention in 2025, especially as its price hovers around $1,250 per ounce. If you’re thinking about investing in platinum this year, here are some straightforward strategies to consider for success.
**Why Platinum?**
Platinum has been outperforming other precious metals like gold and silver so far in 2025. While gold and silver have risen by about 30% and 26% respectively this year, platinum has surged by an impressive 40%. This strong performance is driven by a combination of supply shortages and growing industrial demand. South Africa produces roughly 80% of the world’s platinum but faces challenges such as aging mines, labor issues, and electricity shortages that limit output. This creates a supply deficit that supports higher prices.
**Ways to Invest in Platinum**
1. **Physical Platinum:** Buying physical platinum bars or coins gives you direct ownership of the metal. This can be satisfying for those who want tangible assets but requires secure storage and insurance.
2. **Platinum ETFs:** Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the abrdn Physical Platinum Shares ETF offer an easy way to invest without handling physical metal. These ETFs track the price of platinum closely and have gained popularity due to their liquidity and lower costs compared to buying physical bullion.
3. **Mining Stocks:** Investing in companies that mine platinum can provide leveraged exposure since mining stocks often move more than the metal’s price itself during rallies or downturns. However, these come with company-specific risks such as management decisions or operational problems.
4. **Futures Contracts:** For experienced investors comfortable with riskier instruments, futures contracts allow speculation on future prices but require careful timing due to volatility.
**Timing Your Investment**
Historically, platinum prices tend to stay within certain ranges for long periods before experiencing sharp spikes followed by rapid declines—like what happened around 1980 and again in 2008 when prices soared then crashed quickly afterward.
Given this pattern combined with current market conditions—a third consecutive year of global supply deficits—platinum at $1,250 could still have room for growth if demand remains strong while supply stays tight.
**Considerations Before Investing**
– Keep an eye on industrial demand trends since much of platinum’s use comes from automotive catalytic converters and other industries.
– Monitor geopolitical factors affecting South African mining operations.
– Be prepared for volatility; past spikes were often followed by steep drops.
– Diversify your portfolio rather than putting all your investment into one asset class or commodity.
In essence, investing in platinum at its current level involves balancing optimism about ongoing supply constraints against awareness of historical price swings. Using ETFs offers a practical entry point while keeping options open depending on how market dynamics evolve through the rest of 2025.