Michael Maroney: Hi! My name is Michael Maroney. I am the Vice President of Monex Deposit Company. We're going to discuss should you invest in gold and silver for protection or for the potential profit that exists in the market. Precious metals are for tremendous long-term price appreciation, and they've been fabulous as far as short-term trading opportunities. Only you, the individual investor, can determine which investment strategy is right for you. When you compare the long-term price appreciation of the markets over the last ten years and you look at the performance of certain asset classes, gold has been one of the top asset performers in the world for the last ten years with an average of better than 15 % return. What does the future hold? Only time will tell, but since the trend has been your friend, doesn't it make sense to look at gold as a potential long-term investment in this type of environment? Every investor should start building a core physical position in precious metals. You should have a certain percentage of your portfolio in the precious metals market. This will protect you against the devaluation of paper currency. It will allow you have a safe, simple savings plan that'll guarantee that you'll have something of value in the future. Short-term trading in the precious metals market can be an exciting ride and speculation is certainly not a dirty work. Speculators in this market have found tremendous profitable opportunities in the short-term by being patient and waiting for corrective moves. Yes, the long-term price appreciation of both gold and silver has been extreme, but along the course of this road as the market is moved higher, there have been numerous short-term opportunities for speculators to take advantage of quick price moves. This is something that you, the individual investor, should determine if it's well within your risk tolerance, and if it is, this is something that you should certainly consider, but first, always talk to an expert. Long-term and short-term precious metals strategies are certainly not mutually exclusive. Many investors have fought to satisfy their portfolio needs. Investors will take long-term positions in both gold and silver, but they will still look for short-term trading opportunities to maximize their profitability. There are numerous strategies to utilize based on technical application that'll give you opportunities in the short-term to take advantage of price movement.