ISA Rates

According to Kitco.com, gold prices ended the year 10% higher than last year – the eleventh year in a row of straight gains.

However, Kitco.com doesn't predict a glittering future for the precious metal moving forward into 2012. This is why we think that selling your gold now is going to benefit you financially rather than waiting for prices to rise more.

Many of you will remember that gold rose to an unprecedented $1,920 per ounce before falling dramatically and stabilising around the $1,500 mark.

2011 was a very volatile year for gold, with anyone wishing to sell gold for cash finding they profited greatly in September before the sudden price drop.

So surely, we hear you say, it's prudent to hold on to this precious commodity in case prices go up again, that way we can sell it on and make a bigger profit. Well, while that sounds great in theory; key financial commentators like those writing for Forbes.com say the precious metal is highly unlikely to rally to its previous high levels in the early months of 2012 and could actually fall to $1350 per ounce! Definitely not something that would have been expected last year.

Sterling Smith, a commodities trading advisor for Country Hedging says that gold might pick up to around levels of $1600 per ounce but that "gold prices could fall as far as $1,350". His reason for this is the increased attention he says will be paid to the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. The gold price actually fell when the leaders of the Eurozone met to try and solve the problem, as this will continue, so will the downturn of gold.

This could be because the troubles with the Euro meant more people once again put their faith in the US dollar. Gold has an inverse relationship to the US dollar and will rally if the value of the dollar goes down and vice versa. We're seeing the vice versa at the moment and it is being reflected in the price of gold.

Read the rest of the Kitco.com article at Forbes.com for more information on that.

How to benefit from the situation

However bad the situation looks to be for gold in the next few weeks and maybe months, there are still significant benefits to be derived.

For example, if you have gold that you have been hanging onto, while you're not going to get as much cash for gold for it as you would have done in September, you'll still get more for it than you will if you hang on to it and see prices per ounce go down to levels of $1300.

The only logical advice is to sell gold while prices are still inflated and enjoy the profit you have doubtless made from the sale. Finding a good gold buyer is a must, make sure you do your research and ensure the authenticity of the buyer.