The price of physical gold varies depending on a number of factors. Some of these include supply and demand, inflation and volatility in the U.S. dollar.
There’s only one way to buy physical gold. That is to buy and store it in the form of gold bars, gold coins, or jewelry.
However, due to difficulties in storing and insuring physical gold, some investors choose to get exposure to gold through indirect methods such as gold futures contracts, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and stocks tied to the price of gold itself.
This post originally appeared at Forbes.