How does the invidivual investor actually PROFIT on precious metals? Isn't the broker margin fairly high?

Precious metalks are best thought of as a protection against market falls rather than as a way of making a profit.

If you buy silver at $20 an ounce and then go to sell it once it reaches $30 an ounce, you are going to get offered more like $15 an ounce if you go to a place that buys and sells silver. If you are a very good negotiator, you might get them up to $20, or you might get lucky and get $24 an ounce.

Is there a trading platform where your average Jane or Joe can buy and sell precious metals with a more rational margin, something that makes buying and selling silver or gold more possible for the everyday person?

Has anyone on this site successfully bought and sold precious metals for profit, and if so, how did you do it?

It's not one of those hour-to-hour investment.

Precious metals are for people who think longer term.

It also tends to be for pessimists. You buy gold when you think everything else is going to hell in a handbasket.

i proffit on precious metals, today infact on gold. I trade them as derivatives, youll never make anything trading the commodity itself and my broker charges a spread of 11 pips i think :D

he ONLY profits if he sells them for more than he paid for them - same as any investment - he can always sell to another investor and avoid the broker buy/sell profit margin

Buying precious metals is *not* investing -- it is speculating, ans just about everyone who engages in it loses in the end.

By convincing some other stooge that the economy is about to collapse so he needs to buy some.

No different than beanie babies.